Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Humble
Hum′ble
(hŭm′b’l; 277)
, Adj.
[
Com
par.
Humbler
(hŭm′blẽr)
; sup
erl.
Humblest
(hŭm′blĕst)
.] 1.
Near the ground; not high or lofty.
Thy
humble
nest built on the ground. Cowley.
2.
Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; modest;
as, a
. Used to describe objects. humble
cottage3.
Thinking lowly of one’s self; claiming little for one's self; not proud, arrogant, or assuming; thinking one's self ill-deserving or unworthy, when judged by the demands of God; lowly; weak; modest. Used to describe people.
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
humble
. Jas. iv. 6.
She should be
humble
who would please. Prior.
Without a
humble
imitation of the divine Author of our . . . religion we can never hope to be a happy nation. Washington.
Humble plant
(Bot.)
, a species of sensitive plant, of the genus
– Mimosa
(Mimosa sensitiva
). To eat humble pie
, to endure mortification; to submit or apologize abjectly; to yield passively to insult or humiliation; – a phrase derived from a pie made of the entrails or humbles of a deer, which was formerly served to servants and retainers at a hunting feast. See
Humbles
. Halliwell.
Thackeray.
Hum′ble
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Humbled
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Humbling
.] 1.
To bring low; to reduce the power, independence, or exaltation of; to lower; to abase; to humilate.
Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues
Have
Have
humbled
to all strokes. Shakespeare
The genius which
humbled
six marshals of France. Macaulay.
2.
To make humble or lowly in mind; to abase the pride or arrogance of; to reduce the self-sufficiently of; to make meek and submissive; – often used rexlexively.
Syn. – To abase; lower; depress; humiliate; mortify; disgrace; degrade.