humbled
Americanadjective
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made less proud, especially by awe or admiration, or by gratitude for help received, an undeserved advantage or honor, etc..
The land is a perpetual gift; I am humbled like a stranger who is invited to dinner and fed the best food in the house.
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lowered in condition, power, or dignity; abased.
NATO air strikes and tightening sanctions finally brought the humbled aggressors to the negotiating table.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of humbled
Explanation
Someone who's humbled is made to feel less proud — they're chastened or deflated. A humbled sports star might be one who addresses the public after being punished for cheating. Your favorite basketball team is humbled if they lose badly to one of the worst teams in the league, and your schoolmate is humbled after bragging that he had straight As, only to get a miserable report card. In both cases, the humbled person or group has been brought down to earth, or taken down a peg. They're a little bit embarrassed and a little bit subdued. The Latin root is humilis, "lowly," and literally, "on the ground."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Badenoch added her party "is working to earn the trust of the country again", and is "grateful and humbled" that residents of Aberdeen South voted for the Tories.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2026
“I am deeply humbled by the trust that voters have placed in me,” Khan Valbuena said in a statement on Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2026
Parmitano, a 49-year-old father of two daughters, added that he is "also very humbled by the task in front of us. It's a very complex mission."
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
The A.I. use is the one topic for which Pratt sounded humbled in the stretch drive of the campaign.
From Slate • Jun. 3, 2026
Yet he looked at me from beneath his red-checkered keffiyeh with eyes burning fiercely, refusing to be humbled by his age.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
