(n.) The state of being diffident; distrust; want of confidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others.
(n.) Distrust of one's self or one's own powers; lack of self-reliance; modesty; modest reserve; bashfulness.
Example Sentences:
(1) The Observer of the mid-1950s resembled nothing so much as a giant seminar conducted by the soft-spoken and diffident, yet steely, figure of David Astor.
(2) The main factor, however, is presumably not primness or diffidence but the chart's timeframe.
(3) Physically, he has a sort of wiry poise, often standing on the balls of his feet, but there is also something diffident, almost shyly polite, about him.
(4) In conversation, he is a curious mix of openness and a sweet, faintly diffident shyness.
(5) Diffident technically, she none the less doggedly pursued the detail of the execution of her scenery and costumes: she got what she needed.
(6) Wouldn't we rather our film writers be morally engaged viewers rather than diffident aesthetes?
(7) She too is a sceptic, but has been drawn to watch diffident Corbyn – potentially her future leader.
(8) His maiden speech came on his second day as an MP, in the debate on the address – intervening, he suggested improbably, with feelings of diffidence: "I am convinced that the key to all our hopes and aspirations in the field of economic activity lies in the maintenance and improvement of industrial relationships," he said.
(9) They were difficult because of the language barrier, which required exclusive use of interpreters, and because of the diffidence of the women themselves, especially in discussing matters of sex and childbearing.
(10) He is an odd, diffident sort of ambassador, spreading the message about "the Finnish miracle" but not really believing in the data that supposedly proves that it works.
(11) It stars Tom Hollander as a diffident, gaffe-prone British minister who is packed off to Washington DC, where he becomes a pawn in the political opposition to the war.
(12) And soon he was among them, grinning his diffident chipmunk smile, with his wife, a striking vision in white and red, beside him.
(13) A magnet for media coverage around the world thanks to his entrepreneurial success and love of a photo opportunity, Branson can be surprisingly diffident in person.
(14) He was too nervous – petrified before a big case, and diffident about his own abilities.
(15) At 43, he still looked boyish, with his questioning eyes, a thatch of hair and diffident mumbles.
(16) The media glamourised professional women who decided to have children while pursuing demanding careers, and warned women who put off having children that they would regret their diffidence later.
(17) Like Henry, whom Wenger signed as a diffident winger from Juventus in his early twenties in 1999, Welbeck has arrived at Arsenal after doing more running than scoring at Manchester United with the invitation to develop in a more favoured central attacking role.
(18) That diffidence is evident on screen, in Mia's core of vulnerability, the lonely anguish she camouflages with violence and filthy language.
(19) The man whose motto is a diffident "just messin' about" talks with unguarded passion about the process of music-making.
(20) In 1991, Gavin Millar filmed Call For The Dead's successor A Murder Of Quality, with Denholm Elliott as Smiley, his nervous diffidence dovetailing perfectly with the character.
Indifference
Definition:
(n.) The quality or state of being indifferent, or not making a difference; want of sufficient importance to constitute a difference; absence of weight; insignificance.
(n.) Passableness; mediocrity.
(n.) Impartiality; freedom from prejudice, prepossession, or bias.
(n.) Absence of anxiety or interest in respect to what is presented to the mind; unconcernedness; as, entire indifference to all that occurs.
Example Sentences:
(1) I did not - do not - quite understand how some are able to contemplate his anti-semitism with indifference.
(2) Strains showing occasional antagonism at a particular proportion of concentrations of the test combination, were found to only be indifferent when the mean index of the fractional inhibition concentration of all checkerboard combinations was calculated.
(3) Whether out of fear, indifference or a sense of impotence, the general population has learned to turn away, like commuters speeding by on the freeways to the suburbs, unseeingly passing over the squalor.
(4) "The disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties," he said.
(5) The report paints a picture characterised too often by international indifference, even over the collection and distribution of the raw data on migrant deaths.
(6) Never had I heard anything about what I saw documented so unsparingly in Evan’s photographs: families sleeping in the streets, their clothes in shreds, straw hats torn and unprotecting of the sun, guajiros looking for work on the doorsteps of Havana’s indifferent mansions.
(7) We know this system doesn't work – and yet we prop it up with ignorance and indifference.
(8) The Tip Deflection Test involved securing the lead at 45 degrees at the indifferent electrode and applying a force to deflect the tip 5 mm.
(9) A sine wave current stimulus, applied between electrodes placed about one ear and an indifferent electrode, produced a cyclical sway predominantly in the coronal plane.
(10) I watched about 90 shows in three weeks, with an unfavourable ratio of good to bad to indifferent.
(11) The ghastliness of this American shock jock, who, though still obscure to most Britons, is said to be the third most popular radio host in the States, perhaps explains why news of his continued exclusion from the UK was greeted last week with utter indifference.
(12) In 20 patients a water-soluble contrast medium (Urovison for infusion 30%, 500 ml) was injected after addition of indifferent infusion solutions, or the contrast medium was mixed with the ascitic fluid remaining in the cavity after abdominal puncture of patients with ascites.
(13) When the initial-link reinforcement rate was lower than the terminal-link rate, preference converged toward indifference.
(14) In this study was tested the prediction that approach-oriented wrestlers should perform better than indifferent- and avoidance-oriented ones.
(15) On a macro level, a party that is already thoroughly militarized and corporatized – and largely indifferent to Main Street whenever it poses a conflict with Wall Street – offers little alternative to the other party that already celebrates that.
(16) Even if Honda manage to improve their woeful power unit and McLaren make improvements to their indifferent car, it is difficult to see the team running better than mid-table next term.
(17) He says it is not for him to say what Russia should do but “it can not be indifferent to the destiny of such a big partner as Ukraine”.
(18) What to say to the children who went to a pop concert and left to find their waiting parents blown apart by the hate and callous indifference in the foyer?
(19) The best results were observed in hebephrenic forms and depressive syndroms during the illness; in these indications, carpipramine exerts a clear psychomotor stimulating activity which is useful in decreasing indifference, apathy and ideomotor slowness.
(20) In general, the combination of quinolone antibiotics with other drugs tested against staphylococci, enterococci, and anaerobic species has shown indifference.