[syn: humility, humbleness]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Humility \Hu*mil"i*ty\, n.; pl. Humilities. [OE. humilite, OF.
humilit['e], humelit['e], F. humilit['e], fr. L. humiliatis.
See Humble.]
1. The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride
and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of
one's own worth; a sense of one's own unworthiness through
imperfection and sinfulness; self-abasement; humbleness.
[1913 Webster]
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. --Acts
xx. 19.
[1913 Webster]
2. An act of submission or courtesy.
[1913 Webster]
With these humilities they satisfied the young king.
--Sir J.
Davies.
Syn: Lowliness; humbleness; meekness; modesty; diffidence.
Usage: Humility, Modesty, Diffidence. Diffidence is a
distrust of our powers, combined with a fear lest our
failure should be censured, since a dread of failure
unconnected with a dread of censure is not usually
called diffidence. It may be carried too far, and is
not always, like modesty and humility, a virtue.
Modesty, without supposing self-distrust, implies an
unwillingness to put ourselves forward, and an absence
of all over-confidence in our own powers. Humility
consists in rating our claims low, in being willing to
waive our rights, and take a lower place than might be
our due. It does not require of us to underrate
ourselves.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Upland \Up"land\, a.
1. Of or pertaining to uplands; being on upland; high in
situation; as, upland inhabitants; upland pasturage.
[1913 Webster]
Sometimes, with secure delight
The upland hamlets will invite. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. Pertaining to the country, as distinguished from the
neighborhood of towns; rustic; rude; unpolished. [Obs.W2]
" The race of upland giants." --Chapman.
[1913 Webster]
Upland moccasin. (Zool.) See Moccasin.
Upland sandpiper, or Upland plover (Zool.), a large
American sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) much valued as
a game bird. Unlike most sandpipers, it frequents fields
and uplands. Called also Bartramian sandpiper,
Bartram's tattler, field plover, grass plover,
highland plover, hillbird, humility, prairie
plover, prairie pigeon, prairie snipe, papabote,
quaily, and uplander.
Upland sumach (Bot.), a North American shrub of the genus
Rhus (Rhus glabra), used in tanning and dyeing.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
humility
n 1: a disposition to be humble; a lack of false pride; "not
everyone regards humility as a virtue" [syn: humility,
humbleness] [ant: conceit, conceitedness, vanity]
2: a humble feeling; "he was filled with humility at the sight
of the Pope" [syn: humility, humbleness] [ant: pride,
pridefulness]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
74 Moby Thesaurus words for "humility":
Quakerism, acquiescence, altruism, amenability, back seat,
bashfulness, commitment, compliance, consecration, dedication,
devotion, diffidence, disinterest, disinterestedness, dovelikeness,
gentleness, humbleness, inferiority, juniority, lamblikeness,
lowliness, meekness, mildness, minority, modesty, nonresistance,
nonviolent resistance, obedience, passive resistance, passiveness,
passivity, peaceableness, quietism, quietness, resignation,
sacrifice, second fiddle, second string, secondariness,
self-abasement, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-devotion,
self-effacement, self-forgetfulness, self-immolation, self-neglect,
self-neglectfulness, self-renouncement, self-sacrifice,
self-subjection, selflessness, servility, shyness, subjection,
submission, submissiveness, subordinacy, subordination,
subservience, tameness, third string, timidity, timorousness,
unacquisitiveness, unambitiousness, unassumingness, unboastfulness,
uncomplainingness, unobtrusiveness, unpossessiveness,
unpresumptuousness, unpretentiousness, unselfishness
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Humility
a prominent Christian grace (Rom. 12:3; 15:17, 18; 1 Cor. 3:5-7;
2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 4:11-13). It is a state of mind well pleasing
to God (1 Pet. 3:4); it preserves the soul in tranquillity (Ps.
69:32, 33), and makes us patient under trials (Job 1:22).
Christ has set us an example of humility (Phil. 2:6-8). We
should be led thereto by a remembrance of our sins (Lam. 3:39),
and by the thought that it is the way to honour (Prov. 16:18),
and that the greatest promises are made to the humble (Ps.
147:6; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; 1 Pet. 5:5). It is a "great paradox in
Christianity that it makes humility the avenue to glory."