How To Use Diffidence In A Sentence
-
She added with some little diffidence that the fee for a seance was a guinea, and, as she left, took a card out of a case, encrusted with glowing rubies, and gave it her.
Queen Lucia
-
But there was also a certain diffidence about coming once again to the Empire Club, for I would think the 11th or 12th time.
Winning Without War
-
If there was a little hesitation and diffidence as the games began, it soon vanished without a trace, for even the kids who seemed shy, lost their self-consciousness and joined wholeheartedly in the activities.
-
But there was something in this apparent diffidence.
Times, Sunday Times
-
He turned to Trix and reminded her -- without diffidence and coram populo, as his habit was -- that she had promised him a stroll in the west wood.
Frivolous Cupid
-
Some were put off by what they termed his diffidence, his driving ambition and perfectionism.
The Do-or-Die Men
-
I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
King Lear
-
So I think with some reluctance, with some diffidence, I come down on the positive side of the question.
-
He turned to Trix and reminded her -- without diffidence and coram populo, as his habit was, that she had promised him a stroll in the west wood.
Comedies of Courtship
-
After the initial period of diffidence and hesitation, the young ones got along quite well with one another, and became totally absorbed in the proceedings.
-
Without pudor malus or over-diffidence I would claim to have fulfilled the promise contained in my Foreword.
The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
-
He thought it important enough that he advocated "the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion.
In which Max discovers a tic, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
-
He is paid to be serious, but his default mode is loose and playful, with a touch of hipster diffidence.
-
Nevertheless, something of his old-time diffidence toward the unknown country beyond the grillroom lingered, and it made for peace that his wife seemed so competent to guide.
The Henchman
-
But there was something in this apparent diffidence.
Times, Sunday Times
-
The singer's compelling, pensive and introverted lyrics were delivered with an unusual diffidence from a band enjoying their level of success.
-
Ridley said, with uncharacteristic diffidence: `I've come looking for a bit of advice.
A QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE
-
But when they open the back door of each van, and peer into the sardine-packed interior, they are met by decades of accumulated mistrust, suspicion, diffidence and fear.
-
Whatever the cause might be of the diffidence Mr. Harris sees in the approach of scientists to issues of value and morality, their silence is the sine qua non of arguments like his.
What Unitarians Know (and Sam Harris Doesn't)
-
At his entrance he seemed a little intimidated, as if he were dubious of his reception; nor could he for some minutes devest himself of that feeling, though he was received with the most flattering welcome; -- this transient perturbation gave a very pleasing effect to his first words; and when he said, "My name is Norval," he uttered it with a pause which seemed to be the effect of the modest diffidence natural to such a character upon being introduced into a higher presence than he had ever before approached.
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor Vol I, No. 2, February 1810
-
His gentleness, diffidence, enthusiasm, his sense of fun, his quietly mocking spirit enslaved everyone.
-
Lots of folks grumble about the diffidence, self-absorption and general uncommunicativeness of Generation Y.
Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues
-
This fear is not a fear of diffidence or distrust, such as discourages the soul, for such fear frights from religion, it cuts the sinews of endeavour; but holy fear lest we miss the kingdom of heaven, is a fear of diligence; it quickens us in the use of means, and puts us forward, that we may not fail of our hope.
The Lord's Prayer
-
He exhibits a reserve, diffidence, and even bashfulness, which is in some degree attractive, and leads the observer to thinly that the ferocious and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly exaggerated.
The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 2
-
Was the miners' apparent diffidence at the event motivated by political considerations?
-
Despite her diffidence at Chatham at the idea of beaux, Georgia was eagerly courted by the young men who enrolled in the League in greater numbers and at an older age than the young women.
Portrait of An Artist
-
Even the Cardinal himself, despite his very understandable diffidence, would not deny that.
PROSECUTOR
-
Seeing then to the offensiveness of man's nature one to another, there is added a right of every man to every thing, whereby one man invadeth with right, and another with right resisteth; and men live thereby in perpetual diffidence, and study how to preoccupate each other; the estate of men in this natural liberty is the estate of war.
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic
-
And it hurts when we have this clumsy, plodding exchanges because he was my best friend, and now we can't seem to talk to each other without diffidence and discomfort.
-
The vision of her mourning robes and melancholy beauty so deeply impressed Capitola that, almost for the first time in her life, she hesitated from a feeling of diffidence, and said gently:
The Hidden Hand
-
The reasons for doctors under-reporting adverse drug reactions include fear of litigation, diffidence, and complacency, and pharmacists are likely to hampered by similar constraints.
-
Another shortcoming of the book is Atkinson's diffidence in examining the role of an airmobile division, the Army's only one.
-
So often one comes across a passage as perfectly cut and honed as that one, uttered with a certain diffidence and yet — as is frequent with perfectionists — the product of much silent labor, reflection, and, I might add, stoicism.
The Immortal
-
I promise you the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state; menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
Act I. Scene II. King Lear
-
It is with diffidence and humility that I greet the ultimate constitutional power in the Republic, the Presidential electors.
-
And George W. Bush's blatant diffidence is annoying, too -- not that he has even the tiniest shred of credibility left, but it would be nice if he sort of tried to say or do something comforting in these bleak days.
For Whom The Bell Dingells - Swampland - TIME.com
-
Oh, you know, Chifoilisk," Shevek said in a low voice, with diffidence.
THE DISPOSSESSED
-
Other children sometimes mis-interpret your little Virgo's shyness as diffidence or stand-offishness.
-
It was the rule that the man who was the readiest in the use of fist and slungshot at home had the greatest diffidence about forming a close acquaintance with cold lead in the neighborhood of the front.
Andersonville
-
I differ with great diffidence from the learned Baron whose Oriental reading was extensive; but the tale does not seem to justify his explanations.
The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
-
The reasons for doctors under-reporting adverse drug reactions include fear of litigation, diffidence, and complacency, and pharmacists are likely to hampered by similar constraints.
-
By the time the duo meet years later, however, Kajol has mutated into the quintessential image of traditional womanhood, perpetually clothed in chiffon saris and polite diffidence.
-
And since monetary policy in a liquidity trap must work mainly through its effect on expectations, such diffidence is not only an abdication of responsibility; it undermines the effectiveness of whatever monetary expansion actually takes place.
Matthew Yglesias » Monetary Policy in an Emergency
-
It may well be that 12 years of philosophy and prison have made me daft or corrupt or both, but after I have given my paper I have lunch with Jason and he tells me that it was a bit like Adorno, whom I haven't read but he has, and then he explains to me Hobbes's notion of diffidence and how he is applying it to modern ideas in penology.
A key to happiness for prisoners with little future
-
Some whose natural endowments would, under less unpropitious circumstances, qualify them to reach the summit of fame, are fettered by want of patronage and pecuniary distress, while others are cramped in their efforts by a complexional sensibility which they cannot overcome, and checked in enterprise by diffidence and timidity, the natural offspring of a refined and delicate structure.
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810
-
A good alternative is vacation class - martial arts, music, dance - which colours a child's life, enhancing confidence and wiping away diffidence and inhibitions.
-
For once his seeming diffidence was genuine, but quite unnecessary.
UNTO THE GRAVE
-
Anne wins her right to happiness only when she shakes off diffidence, trusts her own mind and heart, learns to judge for herself, and to make decisions unhampered by influences no less baleful for being well meant.
-
Perhaps we need a trade union of the self-effacing, an Oscar for tentativeness and diffidence.
-
There was melancholy, high and stately, such as Lucretius knew, when he went lonely among the homesteads or along the shore; but it was too exalted to be one with diffidence, for he who will hold the sum of things in his thoughts walks on clouds above the heads of men, free of all misgiving.
Apologia Diffidentis
-
It is with some diffidence that I, a retired Squadron Leader of the most junior of the Armed Services, undertake a review of a book by one of the most eminent soldiers of the late twentieth century.