What's the difference between modest and unassuming?

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.

Unassuming


Definition:

  • (a.) Not assuming; not bold or forward; not arrogant or presuming; humble; modest; retiring; as, an unassuming youth; unassuming manners.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Once he gets that power, he starts relishing that side of his personality.” Claflin is an earthy, unassuming sort; even acting hasn’t given him airs and graces.
  • (2) But the scene in the 250-seater conference centre on an unassuming cobbled mews in central London was a far more serene affair.
  • (3) But on Wednesday morning the eyes of the Russian elite – from ministers to Kremlin critics – will be on an unassuming courthouse in the centre of this city, where Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin's loudest foe, will go on trial charged with embezzlement.
  • (4) Stuart, our guide from Wilderness Scotland, is easy-going and unassuming, and also a font of knowledge and a meticulous safety checker.
  • (5) Deahl described the woman as “quiet, unassuming, terribly committed to what she was doing”.
  • (6) I still am.” For many Republican primary voters, the question is whether the unassuming if somewhat gruff Paul – who insisted on no mayo in the ham and cheese sandwich he ordered for lunch – ever was particularly interesting, or if voters were only attracted to the idiosyncratic, 21st-century libertarianism he expounds.
  • (7) 'I am convinced that the only thing that saved those 1,268 people in my hotel was words,' recalls the unassuming man justifiably compared with Oskar Schindler.
  • (8) It’s a small, unassuming restaurant where even the queue to get in is exciting – order a cold beer and watch one of the owners grill fresh sardines and red mullet by the door as you wait.
  • (9) As he ambles into the small interview room at Munich’s Säbener Strasse in a plain black T-shirt and trainers, Alaba is unassuming to the point of being shy, a little at odds with his reputation as a social-media prankster – his oeuvre contains a series of shots of the midfielder Franck Ribéry dozing and a nearly-nude double-selfie with his former team-mate Mitchell Weiser, in thongs – and as a typically Viennese lausbub (rascal) who once told the club’s former president Uli Hoeness that he had to “think about” an allegation by a concerned member of the public that he was painting the town red with Ribéry in Munich.
  • (10) You would hardly recognise him against the grey walls and wood veneer, the unassuming George Costanza lookalike of the Canberra policy world.
  • (11) Calm, unassuming, with salt-and-pepper hair and thoughtful blue eyes, Jane is at the heart of the Milligan clan (there are three other official siblings, plus two slightly unexpected ones) and tries to keep communications between them open.
  • (12) Coates can pass unrecognised through the streets of Stoke-on-Trent, where Bet365's success has made it the city's largest private sector employer, its unassuming offices a hi-tech hive of activity on the margins of an industrial landscape dominated by derelict pottery factories.
  • (13) Her front room-turned-store, where she sells soft drinks and the clove kretek cigarettes beloved of locals, looks unassuming, but is at ground zero for the city’s battle for survival.
  • (14) At last month's Guardian Edinburgh TV festival, a "masterclass" with unassuming, downhome Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan was the biggest draw.
  • (15) From there, an even worse road led me to the unassuming village where the current Ebola epidemic is thought to have started.
  • (16) Heslov directed and produced the film version of Jon Ronson's book, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Ronson testifies to his and Clooney's unusual generosity: "During the release of the film, [Clooney and Heslov] were very welcoming and unassuming and inclusive."
  • (17) Little stands out about the end-of-terrace house that sits on a busy but unassuming road in west London , other than the North Korean flag that flies outside it.
  • (18) Skip Lievsay, an unassuming-looking guy in his mid-60s with highly trained ears, stood before the stacks of speakers and giant movie screen in his office, fussing quietly.
  • (19) One asked me, ‘[Is this] Malaysia ?’ Then he pointed in the other direction, said ‘Thailand’ and shook his head to signal that he was not wanted there.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Malaysian police exhume remains from suspected migrant grave – video Wang Kelian is an unassuming settlement but it has been thrust into the global spotlight this week after the discovery in nearby jungle of dozens of secret camps used by people smugglers and nearly 140 grave sites .
  • (20) Echography must be unassuming in the diagnosis of extra-uterine pregnancy.