“I only want to say this is the most humble day of my life,” interjected Rupert Murdoch, early in the hearing.
His goal of coming across as humble subtracts from his ability to share just exactly how he became so great at such a young age.
Those first through the door previously reserved for whites have had to be brilliant, talented, but most of all humble.
If only she could lose the humble bragging and the entitlement.
Motley herself is humble, viewing her work as just one contribution to necessary reform.
This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your humble servant.
Horace seemed very sad and humble, and was still quite pale.
Oh, my dear brother, pray that I may be humble, and of a childlike spirit.
I am only a humble maid who holds all her happiness from thee!
She put her face up with a kind of humble frankness, to be kissed.
mid-13c., from Old French humble, earlier humele, from Latin humilis "lowly, humble," literally "on the ground," from humus "earth." Senses of "not self-asserting" and "of low birth or rank" were both in Middle English Related: Humbly; humbleness.
Don't be so humble; you're not that great. [Golda Meir]To eat humble pie (1830) is from umble pie (1640s), pie made from umbles "edible inner parts of an animal" (especially deer), considered a low-class food. The similar sense of similar-sounding words (the "h" of humble was not pronounced then) converged in the pun. Umbles, meanwhile, is Middle English numbles "offal" (with loss of n- through assimilation into preceding article).
late 14c. in the intransitive sense of "to render oneself humble;" late 15c. in the transitive sense of "to lower (someone) in dignity;" see humble (adj.). Related: Humbled; humbling.