humble

humble adj Humble, meek, modest, lowly are comparable when they mean lacking all signs of pride, aggressiveness, or self-assertiveness either in spirit or in outward show. All are applicable to persons and their attitudes and manners, and all but meek may also be applied to homes, occupations, interests, and ways of life.

Humble may suggest a virtue that consists in the absence of pride in oneself or in one's achievements and, in religious use, a consciousness of one's weakness and a disposition to ascribe to the Supreme Being all credit for whatever one is or does that is meritorious

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God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble— Jas 4:6

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Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more— Cowper

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Often humble connotes undue self- depreciation or humiliation sometimes verging on abjectness

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she is humble to abjectness— De Quincey

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As applied to a person's circumstances, humble suggests low social rank, poverty, or insignificance

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a man of humble extraction

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a humble Mexican family— Cather

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he regarded no task as too humble for him to undertake— Huxley

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Meek also, especially in Christian use, may imply a virtue evident not only in the absence of passion or wrath but in a consistent mildness or gentleness of temper

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a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price—/ Pet 3:4

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In more general use, however, the term so often additionally suggests spiritlessness or undue submissiveness that even when it is employed without derogation these ideas are often connoted

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Stephen's face grew serious .... "I'm sorry I upset you." Oh, so he was going to be meek and Christian! Tony wasn't going to stand that either— Archibald Marshall

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meek, humble, timid persons, who accept things as they are— Bensony

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Modest is often preferred to humble in describing a person who takes no credit to himself for what he is or for what he does; the term usually connotes a lack of boastfulness or show of conceit, but it does not necessarily imply, as humble often does imply, a deep conviction of one's unworthiness or inferiority

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the model of an eighteenth- century parish priest . . . just, modest . . . loved and esteemed by all— Ellis

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Taft was so certain he was right he could be rather charmingly simple and modest— New Republic

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As applied to such things as a home, a position, or a price, modest suggests neither extreme lowness nor the opposite, but a reasonable and often unobtrusive medium between extremes

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live in modest circumstances

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my own hotel was modest enough, but it was magnificent in comparison with this— Maugham

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Lowly is often indistinguishable from humble except in its lack of derogatory connotations such as abjectness or sense of inferiority

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surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly— Prov 3:34

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thy heart the lowliest duties on herself did lay— Wordsworth

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men ... of lowly station—hatters, curriers, tanners, dyers, and the like— Motley

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Analogous words: submissive, subdued (see TAME): resigned, acquiescent, *compliant

Contrasted words: *proud, arrogant, insolent, haughty, lordly, overbearing, disdainful: vain, vainglorious, proud (see under PRIDE n): ostentatious, pretentious, *showy

humble vb humiliate, *abase, demean, debase, degrade

Analogous words: abash, discomfit, *embarrass: chagrin, mortify (see corresponding adjectives at ASHAMED)

Contrasted words: *exalt, magnify, aggrandize