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# modesty

«modesty» in Mova's school dictionary: **Not boasting about yourself or your skills, even when you…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (modesty — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Not boasting about yourself or your skills, even when you are good. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#m1)

2) Dressing or behaving in a way that does not draw attention to your body, often for reasons of religion or custom. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#m2)

3) Being small or not much: the modesty of their home. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In PSHE and stories, modesty is a good quality: a modest winner says «the team did well». In religion lessons, many faiths teach modesty in clothes. Opposite: boastfulness, vanity, arrogance. Phrase: «false modesty» — pretending to be humble to get praise.

### examples

- Despite her modesty, she was the best player. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x1)
- «It was nothing,» he said with modesty. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x2)
- Toad had no modesty at all — he sang songs about himself. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x3)
- Some people wear long clothes for modesty. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x4)
- His modesty made everyone like him. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x5)
- The prize-winner thanked her teachers with great modesty. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x6)
- False modesty is fishing for compliments. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x7)
- However he received all the praises bestowed on him with becoming modesty, and prostrating himself, said: [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/#x8)

### note

Uncountable. Adjective: modest (a modest girl; a modest house = a small, plain house). Not the same as shyness: a modest person may be confident but does not boast.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «modesty» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/modesty/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.