After all he may just have enough shame left to avoid being seen to celebrate the effacing from the history books of the United Kingdom.    From Wordnik.com.  [Champagne, Anyone?] Reference

Joseph Ratzinger is also remarkably self-effacing.    From Wordnik.com.  [PERSPECTIVE: THE REAL BENEDICT] Reference

In person, Nicholson is gracious and self-effacing.    From Wordnik.com.  [About Jack] Reference

But every piece started with a few self-effacing words.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Ballad of New York, Lived and Played for All] Reference

Yet he is endowed with self-knowledge and self-effacing dignity.    From Wordnik.com.  [What These Eyes Have Seen] Reference

Yet every where appeared the evidence of "decay's effacing fingers.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas] Reference

The three Troopers, effacing themselves in the shadows, laid final plans.    From Wordnik.com.  [Americans All Stories of American Life of To-Day] Reference

Even the self-effacing Friedlander admits that it turned out "all right.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Hot Portraits Of Cool] Reference

Naturally humble and self-effacing, she had no ambition to shine socially.    From Wordnik.com.  [Marjorie Dean High School Sophomore] Reference

Soft-spoken and self-effacing, Tamm has an impish smile and a wry sense of humor.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Fed Who Blew the Whistle] Reference

Erudite and self - effacing, Wright is remarkably jovial considering his workload.    From Wordnik.com.  [BBC storm over pay and pensions threatens Proms] Reference

At the other extreme, we find self-effacing and schizoid (crowd-hating) technocrats.    From Wordnik.com.  [Terrorists and Freedom Fighters] Reference

Morgan had just struck the bottom of the precipice in his wild, self-effacing dream.    From Wordnik.com.  [Trail's End] Reference

Though self-effacing and not prone to speechifying, Marshall used a few basic maxims.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Plan And The Man] Reference

Card is patient and self-effacing, and he bided his time in the first year and a half.    From Wordnik.com.  [Living Politics: Why Card's Star Is On The Rise] Reference

"It was as good as I ever could have imagined," says the handsome, self-effacing teen.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hamming It Up] Reference

Throughout her public career, she has been self-effacing to the point of invisibility.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mild About Harriet] Reference

Private and self-effacing, he has for years politely turned down requests for interviews.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Paragon Of Reporters] Reference

"I'll leave you two to business," Bink said in his characteristically self-effacing manner.    From Wordnik.com.  [Matt Slade, Esq.--Pro Bono Czar] Reference

These close pals need to be self-disciplined, self-effacing and even, on occasion, self-sacrificing.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 'Moi?' Defense] Reference

Guisewite recalls him as not only generous to young cartoonists, but also as honestly self-effacing.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Dark and Stormy Life] Reference

The little Guyanan had batted with his usual, self-effacing brilliance until he was lbw to a scuttler.    From Wordnik.com.  [Somerset have a first championship in sight after beating Lancashire] Reference

Rouse, who died last Tuesday at 81, would go down as the world's most self-effacing real-estate developer.    From Wordnik.com.  [James Rouse Sparked New Life In Old Cities] Reference

She's refreshingly self-effacing, so much so that she seems genuinely uncomfortable talking about herself.    From Wordnik.com.  [Amy Adams: When You Wish Upon a Movie Star] Reference

That was William Howroyd's invariable way, always doing kindly, unobtrusive acts, and then effacing himself.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sarah's School Friend] Reference

And he relied on no one more than England, a self-effacing secretary of the Navy and defense-industry executive.    From Wordnik.com.  [A New View At Defense] Reference

Shelley Buchanan seems just the opposite -- a self-effacing woman who plays the stereotypical role of Adoring Wife.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Women In His Life] Reference

It was one of those self-effacing moments that the Japanese have come to expect from the Self-Defense Forces, or SDF.    From Wordnik.com.  [FUEL TO THE FIRE] Reference

After years of museum designs that shout "Look at me!" the self-effacing elegance of the New Museum really does feel new.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ending the Era of the Starchitect] Reference

Her catcher: Washington reliever Miguel Batista, who recently made a comment about Miss Iowa as part of a self-effacing joke.    From Wordnik.com.  [Miss Iowa & Washington Nationals Make Up With First Pitch (PICTURES)] Reference

It seemed in some way to draw them together, effacing the memory of those weeks of bitter indifference which lay behind them.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Hermit of Far End] Reference

Ever self-effacing, Parsons offers this success formula: "Ten percent who you know, 10 percent what you know, and 80 percent luck.".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Race To The Top] Reference

Paul Motian, with his slow tempos, loose timing and tunes that go with rainy days, is so self-effacing, he's almost an anti-drummer.    From Wordnik.com.  [Paul Motian: Two From An Anti-Drummer] Reference

A week later, over dinner in Madison, where she lives and teaches at the University of Wisconsin, the writer is funny and self-effacing.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Human Comedy] Reference

This is a phrase of oxymoronic power equal to that of "the attractively self-effacing Bill O'Reilly" or "the damned sensible Glenn Beck.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Ellis Weiner: I'm America, and I'm Tired] Reference

The self-effacing 59-year-old is Indonesia's corruption czar, charged with weeding out graft in one of the world's most corrupt countries.    From Wordnik.com.  ['WORRY AND SACRIFICE'] Reference