HUMBLING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Humbling

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/hˈəmbəlɪŋ/ /hˈəmblɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Humble v. t. (past & past part. humbled; pres. part. humbling)

To bring low; to reduce the power, independence, or exaltation of; to lower; to abase; to humilate. "Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes." "The genius which humbled six marshals of France."

To make humble or lowly in mind; to abase the pride or arrogance of; to reduce the self-sufficiently of; to make meek and submissive; often used rexlexively. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you."

Synonyms: To abase; lower; depress; humiliate; mortify; disgrace; degrade.

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Etymology of 'Humbling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Humbling" Quotes from Famous Books

... To be held dreadful. O my England, crease Thy purple with no alien agonies, No struggles toward encroachment, no vile war! Disband thy captains, change thy victories, Be henceforth prosperous as the angels are, Helping, not humbling. ...

— The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume IV • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

... Confederates to show to the world that they were sincere when they declared that all they desired was to be permitted to leave the Union in peace. But they did not do it. They could not wait three days. They wanted the honor of reducing Fort Sumter, and of humbling the flag which had never been lowered to any nation on earth. They wanted to "fire the Southern heart," and make sure of the secession of Virginia by "sprinkling blood in the people's faces," and so they opened their batteries upon the fort. After a ...

— True To His Colors • Harry Castlemon

... understand!' he said reverently—'I can understand. I have come across it once or twice, that fierce self-judgment of the good. It is the most stirring and humbling thing in life.' Then his voice dropped. 'And after the last conflict—the last "quailing breath"—the last onslaughts of doubt or fear—think of ...

— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... think mine would not burn easily. With fire, with such indignant fire as pride Yields, when it must destroy itself to feel The power of the world touch it with humbling flame,— With such a fire, whose heat you know not of, Have I assayed this—notion, didst thou say? And it stood upright, with its shape unquencht, And ...

— Emblems Of Love • Lascelles Abercrombie

... I must needs think, for the sake Of humbling me for my vain opposition. You are ingenious, Loredano, in Your modes of vengeance, nay, poetical, A very Ovid in the art of hating; 'Tis thus (although a secondary object, Yet hate has microscopic eyes), to you I owe, by way of foil to the more zealous, This undesired ...

— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

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