humble

  • adjective (humbler, humblest) 1 having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. 2 of low rank. 3 of modest pretensions or dimensions: humble beginnings.

  • verb lower in dignity or importance.

  — PHRASES eat humble pie make a humble apology and accept humiliation. humble pie is from a pun based on archaic umbles offal, considered inferior food.

  — DERIVATIVES humbly adverb.

  — ORIGIN Latin humilis ‘low, lowly’, from humus ‘ground’.

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