modesty
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Modesty \Mod"es*ty\, n. [L. modestia: cf. F. modestie. See
{Modest}.]
1. The quality or state of being modest; that lowly temper
which accompanies a moderate estimate of one's own worth
and importance; absence of self-assertion, arrogance, and
presumption; humility respecting one's own merit.
[1913 Webster]
2. Natural delicacy or shame regarding personal charms and
the sexual relation; purity of thought and manners; due
regard for propriety in speech or action.
[1913 Webster]
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
{Modesty piece}, a narrow piece of lace worn by women over
the bosom. [Obs.] --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Bashfulness; humility; diffidence; shyness. See
{Bashfulness}, and {Humility}.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
128 Moby Thesaurus words for "modesty":
aloofness, altruism, backwardness, bashfulness, blankness, boggle,
boggling, chilliness, coldness, commitment, compunction,
consecration, constraint, coolness, decency, decorousness, decorum,
dedication, delicacy, demur, demurral, detachment, devotion,
diffidence, discreetness, discretion, disinterest,
disinterestedness, distance, dullness, elegance,
expressionlessness, fairishness, falter, faltering, frigidity,
frostiness, guardedness, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation,
homeliness, humbleness, humility, iciness, impassiveness,
impassivity, impersonality, inaccessibility, indifference,
ingloriousness, innocuousness, introversion, lackluster, lowlihood,
lowliness, meanness, mediocreness, mediocrity, meekness,
middlingness, moderateness, modestness, objection, passableness,
pause, plainness, poorness, propriety, protest, pudency, pudicity,
qualm, qualm of conscience, qualmishness, recoil, remoteness,
repression, reserve, reservedness, respectability, restraint,
reticence, reticency, retirement, sacrifice, scruple, scrupulosity,
scrupulousness, seemliness, 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,
shame, shrinking, shyness, simpleness, smallness, standoffishness,
stickling, subduedness, submissiveness, suppression, teachableness,
tediousness, tolerableness, unacquisitiveness, unaffability,
unapproachability, uncongeniality, undemonstrativeness,
unexpansiveness, unimportance, unpossessiveness, unpretentiousness,
unselfishness, withdrawal, withdrawnness
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