He was said to be diffident but learned.
Salter, whose manner can be diffident, thought for a moment.
Having to defend your material, in that company… you just couldn't be diffident.
D'Estaing was an energetic commander, but his lack of naval experience caused him to be diffident before smaller British forces.
Presentation: Be diffident but efficient.
Men are governed by opinion; this opinion is as much influenced by appearances as by realities; if a Government appears to be confident of its own powers, it is the surest way to inspire the same confidence in others; if it is diffident, it may be certain, there will be a still greater diffidence in others, and that its authority will not only be distrusted, controverted, but contemned.
If the doctor has the kind of personality that craves praise and appreciation, for instance, then diffident or withdrawn patients may be difficult to care for, Dr. Sledge said.
One answer may be that Mr. Obama, perhaps inhibited by his desire to transcend partisanship (and avoid praising the last Democratic president?), has been surprisingly diffident about attacking the Bush economic record.
It may be, the Times recently quoted him as saying, that "from the neutrino we came and to the neutrino we will return". With all respect to the diffident neutrino, we must take exception to this revision of Genesis 3 19.
But Brian Briggs – who remains the world's most diffident frontman – hasn't forgotten the melodies: Farewell Appalachia has a delicious bounce, and You Take Me As I Am may be their best song yet.
You're diffident" had already become clichéd from the lips of an overpsychoanalyzed cohort; it is unsurprising that Nichols and May's first booker was Jack Rollins, the comedy talent scout who also championed Woody Allen.
