self-effacing
/ˌsɛlfɪˈfeɪsɪŋ
/adjective
Not claiming attention for oneself; retiring and modest: his demeanour was self-effacing, gracious, and polite...
- Modest, well-mannered and self-effacing, he is someone everybody likes because he works hard at earning their trust and affection.
- She is too modest and too self-effacing to tell the whole story, but she will, I hope, some day.
- He is so modest and self-effacing which also makes him popular with his peers.
Derivatives
self-effacement
/ noun ...- Instead, such work requires and encourages proportion rather than exaggeration, information rather than provocation, accuracy rather than speculation, self-effacement rather than self-promotion.
- Such self-effacement testifies to our diarist's ethical fortitude, but that German women should have endured such pain on behalf of German men should satisfy no one's sense of justice.
- Yet, we can't really break the pattern of automatically deferring to experts and other people unless we become aware of the moment of self-effacement and actively replace the automatic response.
self-effacingly
- He's also willing to wax self-effacingly in interview, particularly when asked about his songwriting process.
- He spoke sincerely, directly, self-effacingly about the nation's problems and infected the country with his constant optimism.