self-effacing

British  

adjective

1. tending to make oneself, one's actions, etc, inconspicuous, esp because of humility or timidity; modest

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Other Word Forms

• self-effacingly adverb

Example Sentences

So self-effacing is Rembrandt, in fact, that some portraits, and this is one, seem to have come into being independent of human agency.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Eastward, Westward” is the opposite of congratulatory: It is courtly and self-effacing.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the pilot, she is insecure and self-effacing; when a car almost runs her over, she apologizes to the driver.

From Salon

In his obituary for Gehry, Christopher Hawthorne described the studio as a “spare, even self-effacing stucco box, plain outside and filled with light and surprising spatial complexity inside.”

From Los Angeles Times

He has a wide smile and an easygoing, self-effacing way about him.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• coy
• discreet
• humble
• reticent
• unassuming
• unobtrusive
• unpretentious