Hum·ble a. [Compar. Humbler superl. Humblest ]
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. --Prior.
Without a humble imitation of the divine Author of our . . . religion we can never hope to be a happy nation. --Washington.
Humble plant Bot., 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. --Halliwell. --Thackeray.
humble plant
n : prostrate or semi-erect subshrub of tropical America, and
Australia; heavily armed with recurved thorns and having
sensitive soft gray-green leaflets that fold and droop at
night or when touched or cooled [syn: sensitive plant,
touch-me-not, shame plant, live-and-die, action
plant, Mimosa pudica]