Idiom
hide one's light under a bushel
Meaning
To conceal one's positive qualities or talents, especially due to modesty or shyness; to avoid attention.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“You are talented, so do not hide your light under a bushel.”
“She is a brilliant artist, but she tends to hide her light under a bushel when people ask about her work.”
“Despite his profound expertise in the field, he often hides his light under a bushel, preferring to let his colleagues take the credit for his innovations.”
Examples
simple
“You are talented, so do not hide your light under a bushel.”
contextual
“She is a brilliant artist, but she tends to hide her light under a bushel when people ask about her work.”
complex
“Despite his profound expertise in the field, he often hides his light under a bushel, preferring to let his colleagues take the credit for his innovations.”
Origin
The phrase originates from a parable of Jesus Christ recorded in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the Bible. The imagery involves the lighting of a candle, which the text suggests one would not then proceed to cover with a bushel, a dry-measure vessel with a capacity of eight gallons. The parable serves as an instruction to Christians to permit their good works to be visible to others rather than obscured by a container of grain.
The specific phrasing entered the common idiom via the King James Version of the Bible. In the book of Matthew, the text addresses the followers with the pronoun Ye, identifying them as the light of the world and noting that a city set on a hill cannot be hid. The bushel in question was a standard agricultural measure, repurposed in the text as an improbable and rather suffocating lampshade.
Key words
Related idioms
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