humble

1. 1

   Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming.

   • He lives in a humble one-bedroom cottage.
   • 17th century, Abraham Cowley, The Shortness of Life and Uncertainty of Riches The wise example of the heavenly lark. Thy fellow poet, Cowley, mark, Above the clouds let thy proud music sound, Thy humble nest build on the ground.
2. 2

   Having a low position or a low opinion of oneself; not proud, arrogant, or assuming; modest.

   • She ſhould be humble, who would pleaſe; And ſhe muſt ſuffer, who can love.
   • Rosol's 65 winners to Nadal's 41 was one of the crucial statistics in the 3hr 18min match that ended in a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 triumph labelled a "miracle" by Rosol, who was humble enough to offer commiserations to Nadal.

syn. abased · demure · diffident · humble · humble-hearted · low · lowly · meek · mild · modest · poor · resigned

ant. arrogant · immodest

1. 1

   People with a low position or a low opinion of themselves; those who are not proud, arrogant, or assuming.

   • c. 590 AD: Liber Regulae Pastoralis by Pope Gregory I "The humble are to be admonished not to be more submissive than is right".
2. 2

   An arrest based on weak evidence intended to demean or punish the subject.slang

   • You're on a corner in my district, it ain't gonna be about no humble, it ain't gonna be about no loitering charge, nothing like that. There gonna be some biblical shit happening to you on the way to that motherfucking jail wagon.
   • Years ago, guys on Baltimore's streets would have, by definition, called an arrest for loitering a "humble."

1. 1

   To defeat or reduce the power, independence, or pride of.ambitransitive

   • Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues have humbled to all strokes.
   • Humble yourselues therefore vnder the mighty hand of God, that hee may exalt you in due time,
2. 2

   To make humble or lowly; to make less proud or arrogant; to make meek and submissive.oftenreflexivetransitive

   • And you say you've been humbled in love / Cut down in your love / Forced to kneel in the mud next to me
   • The final, quiet moments of the book return to Sten; his experience of his sick son humbles him, just as his aging body humbles him, and Boyle seems to suggest this makes him a better man.

1. 1

   To hum.intransitiveobsolete

   • humbling and bumbling

1. 1

   Alternative form of hummel.Northern-EnglandScotlandalso

   • humble cattle

1. 1

   Alternative form of hummel.alt-ofalternativetransitive