From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Modesty \Mod"es*ty\, noun [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.
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.
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. --Shak.
{Modesty piece}, a narrow piece of lace worn by women over the bosom. [Obs.] --Addison.
Syn: Bashfulness; humility; diffidence; shyness. See {Bashfulness}, and {Humility}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: freedom from vanity or conceit [ant: {immodesty}]
2: formality and propriety of manner [syn: {reserve}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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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