Sample sentences for SELF-EFFACING

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Definition

modest and reluctant to draw attention to yourself

Although she is shy and self-effacing, she is fiercely competitive.

The humble, self-effacing Charlie you were all talking about a while ago is just waiting patiently.
Daniel Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon — Novel

self-effacing = modest and reluctant to draw attention to oneself

Finnick's real charms of self-effacing humor and an easygoing nature are on display for the first time.
Suzanne Collins -- Mockingjay

self-effacing = modest and reluctant to draw attention to yourself

I'll admit I'm like him in a number of ways, but humility and self-effacement are not among them.
Daniel Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon — Novel

self-effacement = modest and reluctant to draw attention to yourself

He was funny, candid, self-effacing.
Dave Eggers -- A Hologram for the King
But when I reflect back on my surgical training, I'm indebted to a small, dark man, a self-effacing surgeon whom the world might never celebrate.
Abraham Verghese -- Cutting for Stone
I am glad to be living with this kind couple, whose quiet, self-effacing manner I am coming to understand.
Christina Baker Kline -- Orphan Train
But he knew that she was enormously aware of him in her silent, self-effacing way.
Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead
The old instinct of deference and humility was there; the habit of decent self-effacement and knowledge of her "own place."
Henry James -- The American
He cracked a self-effacing grin.
Gillian Flynn -- Gone Girl
However, whenever his eyes met David's father's, the expression on his face tended to freeze into one of ingratiating self-effacement.
Henry Roth -- Call It Sleep
But some people, under a nervous and self-effacing manner, conceal a great deal of vanity and self-satisfaction.
Agatha Christie -- The ABC Murders
She reminds me of my mother; what I loved most in Mother was her self-effacement, her 'dimness,' as they say, and it's she I've always wanted to get back to.
Albert Camus -- The Plague
It was not an easy task: her soulher sad, timid, self-effacing soullay concealed in the depths of her bowels and was ashamed to show itself.
Milan Kundera -- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
And in Ira's Pima culture being quiet and self-effacing was encouraged.
James Bradley -- Flags of Our Fathers
I thought he might shift from the self-effacing Abnegation leader to the nightmare I knew at home, that he might lash out and reveal himself for who he is.
Veronica Roth -- Allegiant
He was trying to be self-effacing.
James Patterson -- 1st to Die
They were my family's friends and neighbors and coworkers, and before, their presence would have encouraged me to be quiet and self-effacing.
Veronica Roth -- Insurgent
At half-past ten Tibby, with rare self-effacement, fell asleep, and Margaret was able to drive her aunt to the station.
E.M. Forster -- Howards End
Totally out of character, but in case anyone should ever refer to them, he had better restudy the "facts" so he could at least nod in self-effacing modesty.
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Ultimatum

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