Wiktionary
self-effacement
n. The act of keeping oneself in the background, as in humility.
WordNet
self-effacement
n. withdrawing into the background; making yourself inconspicuous [syn: effacement]
Usage examples of "self-effacement".
He was still loquacious, still given to flippancy, to clever self-effacements, to chumminess, but he seemed a more sober person than he had ever been.
In humble self-effacement the iron object that had rewarded his childish scribbling and crossing-out of so and so many Russian tanks, crossed itself and lay motionless over his top collar button.
He could almost have hated this man before him-Quennel, with that touch of religiosity all compassionate egotists have: the superiority is expressed through self-effacement.