walk of shame

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walk of shame (plural walks of shame)

1. (informal, originally US university slang) A walk home the morning after a sexual encounter while still in evening dress.
   • 2004, Sam Stall with Lou Harry and Julia Spalding, The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1,001 Things You Hate to Love, →ISBN, →OL, page 75:

     Is it any wonder that a new generation of Gloria Gaynors has adopted the sequined halter as the standard issue for dancing 'til dawn (followed by the mortifying Sunday morning "walk of shame")?

   • 2005, Nicole Goss with Tim Williams, University Of Georgia College Prowler Off The Record, →ISBN, →OL, page 65:

     Because alcohol is so popular, morning-after experiences and walks of shame are pretty common for many students. Almost everyone is looking for romance in some capacity.

   • 2013 August 8, Bag Man (Graceland), season 1, episode 8:

     Mike: Yeah, in my world, good sex can be a workout. And I don't believe in the walk of shame.
     Abby: Me neither. It's the get laid parade.

   • 2013 December 4, Jill Filipovic, “The only shameful thing about sex is justifying outdated views with 'science'”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The "walk of shame" is a Sunday morning ritual on college campuses (and sometimes beyond) across the United States: young women, hair matted and still in last night's skirt and heels, trudge home post-hook-up. It's a uniquely female ritual, and the term itself evokes a singularly female image.

   • 2016 August 18, Stefanie Weiss, “5 sex positions for the lascivious Leo”, in SheKnows‎^[2]:

     You do not do walks of shame—you do struts of honor.

   • 2025 May 5, Brock Colyar, quoting Rachelle Hruska MacPherson, “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl”, in New York‎^[3], archived from the original on 19 May 2025:

     For one, “back then, it wasn’t about getting the right workout look,” said Rachelle Hruska MacPherson, the founder of Lingua Franca. Less green juice, less hot yoga, more walks of shame.

2. (Internet slang, informal) A tacit or symbolic acknowledgement of defeat or acquiescence when confronted by a First Amendment auditor. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• wall of shame

• “walk of shame” under “walk v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present