Humble /(hŭm"b'l; 277)/

Hum·ble

Humble

a.
  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 humble cottage. Used to describe objects.
  3. 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.
    Without a humble imitation of the divine Author of our . . . religion we can never hope to be a happy nation.
    — Washington.

Phrases & Compounds

Humble plant
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.

Humble

a.
  1. Hornless. See Hummel. [Scot.]

Humble

v. 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 humbled to all strokes.
    The genius which humbled six marshals of France.
  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.
    Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.
    — 1 Pet. v. 6.