Having subtitled my recent column on DOGE with a reference to Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” I thought to refresh my recollection of that famous piece of political discourse. Swift published ...
Like humble, modest adequately describe one who does not boast about one's achievements, thereby avoiding a different kind of excessiveness: Louisa May Alcott was always modest about her gifts; whatever early dreams of genius she might have nourished had been knocked out of her years before her literary fame arrived.
MODEST definition: having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merits, importance, etc.; free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness, or great pretensions. See examples of modest used in a sentence.
MODEST definition: 1. not large in size or amount, or not expensive: 2. not usually talking about or making obvious…. Learn more.
Definition of modest adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
Define modest. modest synonyms, modest pronunciation, modest translation, English dictionary definition of modest. adj. 1. Having or showing a moderate estimation of one's own abilities, accomplishments, or value: was too modest to talk about his success.
You use modest to describe something such as an amount, rate, or improvement which is fairly small. Unemployment rose to the still modest rate of 0.7%. The nation's balance of payments improved modestly last month. If you say that someone is modest, you approve of them because they do not talk much about their abilities or achievements.
modest, adj. meanings, etymology, pronunciation and more in the Oxford English Dictionary