What's the difference between humble and modest?

Humble


Definition:

  • (superl.) Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a humble cottage.
  • (superl.) 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; waek; modest.
  • (a.) Hornless. See Hummel.
  • (v. t.) To bring low; to reduce the power, independence, or exaltation of; to lower; to abase; to humilate.
  • (v. t.) 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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) You get like three days where you have to show up?” But the younger rival managed to turn difficult questions into an opportunity to boast of his humble background and promise of change.
  • (2) Chelsea, racism and the Premier League’s role | Letters Read more Mighty Manchester United had just been humbled by lowly Leicester City, battered 5-3.
  • (3) The classic Jedi response to subservience can be seen in the contrast between Luke’s first meeting with C-3PO – “I see, Sir”; “You can call me Luke”; “I see, Sir Luke,”; “No, just Luke” – and Qui-Gon Jinn meeting Jar Jar Binks: “Mesa your humble servant”; “That won’t be necessary”.
  • (4) In line with his modest and humble public image, Francis exhibits a strong taste for Italian neorealist cinema, which eschewed Hollywood razzle-dazzle and told morally powerful stories set among the working class.
  • (5) As it has elevated "hygge" (cosiness) into a way of life, Copenhagen has elevated the humble bicycle into a cultural icon, a pillar of its image.
  • (6) Recalling the triumphant welcome into Jerusalem, Francis said Jesus "awakened so many hopes in the heart, above all among humble, simple, poor, forgotten people, those who don't matter in the eyes of the world".
  • (7) Celebrity and success came to him in the George Clooney tradition: when he was older and wiser and better at handling it, when a decade of scraping by in Hollywood, in every sense, had made him humble and more human.
  • (8) Beginning as a humble meat processor in 1955, Farmfoods opened its first experimental shop in Aberdeen in the early 1970s.
  • (9) And you have humbled me with your commitment to our country.
  • (10) Three precious points appeared to be theirs and they stood not only to crown a fightback that had hardly been trailed, but to soothe the pain of the 6-0 humbling at Chelsea from last Saturday.
  • (11) ?” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson ‘humbled’ to be appointed foreign secretary – video There was also bewilderment at Johnson’s appointment in Beijing’s diplomatic circles.
  • (12) Qatar’s royal family may have snapped up Canary Wharf for £2.6bn this week, adding to its London portfolio of Harrods and the Shard skyscraper, but the Gulf billionaires’ property spree has finally run into a dead end – a humble town hall bureaucrat.
  • (13) We honour Otis and his complete and humbling fascination with all things outdoors, big and small, near and far.
  • (14) Koroma said he was “humbled by the dedication” of 35,000 Ebola response workers “whose heroism is without parallel in the history of our country”.
  • (15) From humble roots in Philadelphia, he has more than once gained, lost and regained sway in LA showbusiness.
  • (16) Thus humbled, consider Goethe's admonition as a call to further scrutiny and investigation, "Theory and experience are opposed to each other in constant conflict.
  • (17) Tony Selznick , taught Bowie to roller-skate for the Day-In Day-Out video David came across as very humble and in between careers, almost.
  • (18) But Malala, who has interviewed her and followed her on the campaign trail, found Madikizela-Mandela less than humble.
  • (19) Siti’s mother, Benah, said the Indonesian attacker came from a humble village background.
  • (20) In return for the biggest bailout in global financial history – rescue funds from the EU and IMF amounting to €240bn (£188bn) – it was hoped that old mentalities would change and a nation humbled by near-bankruptcy would finally dump its culture of deceit.

Modest


Definition:

  • (a.) Restraining within due limits of propriety; not forward, bold, boastful, or presumptious; rather retiring than pushing one's self forward; not obstructive; as, a modest youth; a modest man.
  • (a.) Observing the proprieties of the sex; not unwomanly in act or bearing; free from undue familiarity, indecency, or lewdness; decent in speech and demeanor; -- said of a woman.
  • (a.) Evincing modestly in the actor, author, or speaker; not showing presumption; not excessive or extreme; moderate; as, a modest request; modest joy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Incubation with IFN alpha or IFN gamma for 24 h resulted in only modest cytokinetic alterations, and they did not modify the effects of FUra.
  • (2) The active agents modestly improved treadmill exercise duration time until 1 mm ST segment depression (3%), and only propranolol and diltiazem had significant effects.
  • (3) Brown's model, which goes far further than those from any other senior Labour figure, and the modest new income tax powers for Holyrood devised when he was prime minister, edge the party much closer to the quasi-federal plans championed by the Liberal Democrats.
  • (4) The standard varies from modest to lavish – choose carefully and you could be staying in an antique-filled room with your host's paintings on the walls, and breakfasting on the veranda of a tropical garden.
  • (5) Bupropion, in contrast, had a modest effect only in CD-1 mice.
  • (6) These data support a modest role for alpha 1-adrenergic coronary vasoconstriction during exercise but fail to document an additional role for postsynaptic alpha 2-adrenergic coronary vasoconstriction during exercise.
  • (7) Alterations in mean systolic blood pressure appeared to be modest, consisting of a 10 percent decrease from the control level, related to sedation, and a 10 percent rise from baseline during the procedure, associated with a concomitant mild tachycardia.
  • (8) The patient made modest improvement with high-dose intravenous steroids.
  • (9) Modest reductions in renal function as measured by clearances of inulin and p-aminohippurate occurred acutely only in the patients with renal impairment.
  • (10) Although the debate in the US has led to some piecemeal reforms – including the USA Freedom Act and modest policy changes – many of the most intrusive government surveillance programs remain largely intact.
  • (11) Ultimately, both Geffen and Browne turned out to be correct: establishing the pattern for Zevon's career, the albums sold modestly but the critics loved them.
  • (12) Simultaneous metabolic studies of human normal fibrinogen and asialofibrinogen in rabbits revealed only a modest decrease in the half-life of the asialoprotein compared to the intact protein, with no preferential uptake of the asialo-derivative by the liver.
  • (13) Levels of involvement in the program were modest, with only 16% of those screened having over 10 clinical contacts and 24% still involved after 3 months.
  • (14) Testosterone and estrogen administration at low or modest doses to individuals with the capacity to produce GH causes GH production and IGF-I levels to increase.
  • (15) The more modest effect of (n-3) fatty acid supplementation in decreasing LTB4 generation was not due to blockade of the cyclooxygenase pathway.
  • (16) The effect of volume expansion on sodium, calcium and magnesium remaining in the proximal tubule was relatively modest and not affected by furosemide.
  • (17) On the other side of the Atlantic, a more modest, quieter challenger plans to take on the US electric car giant.
  • (18) In conclusion, a zipper technique has been outlined that allows effective continuing drainage of the septic abdomen, permits early diagnosis of organ damage, is rapid and cost effective, minimizes ventilator dependency and gastrointestinal complications, is well tolerated by the patients, and has produced a modest 65 per cent survival rate in the first 34 critically ill patients in whom it was used.
  • (19) In order to improve the modest oral activity of PGE2 as an inhibitor of gastric acid secretion, analogs were prepared and tested orally in histamine-challenged rats.
  • (20) Specific binding of insulin did not differ between control and modestly insulinopenic diabetics but was increased significantly in the severely insulinopenic diabetics.