Advertisement
Advertisement
hide one's light under a bushel
Idioms and Phrases
Show extreme modesty, as in Even after Paul won the scholarship be went on hiding his light under a bushel . This expression, which does not necessarily express approval of this behavior, has its origin in the New Testament (Matthew 5:15): “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.†[Early 1600s]Example Sentences
Oh, it doesn't do to hide one's light under a bushel!
One must speak up for oneself, and not hide one's light under a bushel!
Social progress has, moreover, made it almost a crime to hide one's light under a bushel.
When he was left stranded by the panic of 1857, acting upon his own principle that "to hide one's light under a bushel is to extinguish it," he entered the political arena.
Advertisement
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse