The personal embarrassment that one feels on account of and for another (i.e. a friend, a family member or a complete stranger) who is making a fool of him or herself. A person experiencing secondhand embarrassment feels as if they are doing the embarrassing action themselves, effectively putting themselves in the other person's shoes.
Guy 1: Man, Sarah's presentation today was terrible. She forgot half of it and stumbled through the rest.
Guy 2: Oh I know. I had so much secondhand embarrassment for her. It was like watching a train wreck.
Someone who wants to die, but won't commit suicide.
Often because they don't actually want to die, they're too scared to or because of family, friends or pets.
"I want to die, but i cant commit suicide because i'm too scared" she said
"That's called *secondhand suicide* and you're not alone in feeling this way" he answered
When you hear everything that is said nearby, but you really don’t want to.
I learned all about what it means to be an adult while secondhand listening to drunk people at our backyard pool parties outside my bedroom window on school nights.