Meaning:
Having little to no money.
Example:
- Any chance we can go out to dinner next week? I'm just a little financially
embarrassed right now.
- I've been financially embarrassed ever since I got that huge medical bill.
- I became frugal when I was financially embarrassed in college.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com [edited]
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Growing up in the 70s&80s rural China, I know quite a few people who had
financially embarrassed childhoods. For them, poverty taught sound lessons which
in time helped bringing material success. Some of such lucky folks, however,
found the wealthy life not as wonderful as it was cracked up to be.
It's the forever yin and yang and money merely changes the game. While making
some parts of life easier, they say, it stresses, distracts, begets wants, and
gives a false sense of security. They feel living in a bubble of smug lukewarm
comfort that cloys and suffocates over time. They keep asking then what? Just
like what Agent Smith would say: "The perfect world is a dream that your
primitive cerebrum keeps trying to wake up from."
