What's the difference between modest and slight?

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.

Slight


Definition:

  • (n.) Sleight.
  • (v. t.) To overthrow; to demolish.
  • (v. t.) To make even or level.
  • (v. t.) To throw heedlessly.
  • (superl.) Not decidedly marked; not forcible; inconsiderable; unimportant; insignificant; not severe; weak; gentle; -- applied in a great variety of circumstances; as, a slight (i. e., feeble) effort; a slight (i. e., perishable) structure; a slight (i. e., not deep) impression; a slight (i. e., not convincing) argument; a slight (i. e., not thorough) examination; slight (i. e., not severe) pain, and the like.
  • (superl.) Not stout or heavy; slender.
  • (superl.) Foolish; silly; weak in intellect.
  • (v. t.) To disregard, as of little value and unworthy of notice; to make light of; as, to slight the divine commands.
  • (n.) The act of slighting; the manifestation of a moderate degree of contempt, as by neglect or oversight; neglect; indignity.
  • (adv.) Slightly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A slight varus angle of 2.1 degrees became apparent.
  • (2) At the moment we are, if anything, slightly lagging."
  • (3) In schizophrenic patients the density of dopamine uptake sites in the basal ganglia was slightly reduced, mainly in the middle third of putamen.
  • (4) In the presence of insulin, a qualitatively similar pattern of increasing responses to albumin is observed; the enhancement of each response by insulin is, however, only slightly potentiated by higher albumin concentrations.
  • (5) Type 1 changes (decreased signal intensity on T1-weighted spin-echo images and increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) were identified in 20 patients (4%) and type 2 (increased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and isointense or slightly increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) in 77 patients (16%).
  • (6) At the highest dose of chloroquine tested (500 microM), a slightly greater increase in insulin binding and a decrease in insulin degradation were observed in fetal cells as compared with adult cells.
  • (7) Epidermal growth factor reduced plating efficiency by about 50% for A431 cells in different cell cycle phases whereas a slight increase in plating efficiency was seen for SiHa cells.
  • (8) )-induced gnawing behavior in rats was slightly more potent than that of clocapramine.
  • (9) Regression curves indicate that although all three types of pulmonary edema can be characterized by slightly different slopes, the differences are statistically insignificant.
  • (10) TR was classified as follows: severe (massive systolic opacification and persistence of the microbubbles in the IVC for at least 20 seconds); moderate (moderate systolic opacification lasting less than 20 seconds); mild (slight systolic opacification lasting less than 10 seconds); insignificant TR (sporadic appearance of the contrast medium into the IVC).
  • (11) When the Tunnel closed, Hardee decamped in 1991 to Up The Creek - a slightly better behaved venue in nearby Greenwich, which Hardee described as "the Tunnel with A-levels".
  • (12) Gross brain atrophy was slight and equal in both groups.
  • (13) Men who ever farmed were at slightly elevated risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (odds ratio = 1.2, 95% confidence interval = 1.0-1.5) that was not linked to specific crops or particular animals.
  • (14) The binding to DNA-cellulose of heat-activated [3H]RU486-receptor complexes was slightly decreased (37%) when compared with that of the agonist [3H]R5020-receptor complexes (47%).
  • (15) The scleral arc length is slightly longer than the chord length (caliper setting).
  • (16) Hyperosmolar buffer slightly increased the sensitivity and maximal response to methacholine as well as the cholinergic twitch to electric field stimulation.
  • (17) Though three of these presumable metabolites could slightly inhibit the binding of [3H]-KW-3049, they were not detected in rat and dog plasma at 0.5 h after oral administration of KW-3049.
  • (18) Lambing rates approach 1.5 lambs per ewe per year, but a death rate of 23 per cent and an offtake of 27 per cent, means that flock numbers are probably slightly declining.
  • (19) Subjects who trained an additional 52 wk showed a slight drop in SV at submaximal work loads from the initial increase following the first 9 wk.
  • (20) Steroid-treated steers showed a slight decline in synthesis which was significant (P less than 0.05) at week +5 post-implant while amino acid oxidation was significantly lower at weeks +2 (P less than 0.01) and +5 (P less than 0.05) compared with control animals.