(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.
Shyness
Definition:
(n.) The quality or state of being shy.
Example Sentences:
(1) Strachan, whose shyness is routinely disguised by attempts at comedy, responded with a wave.
(2) The results revealed that shyness and social phobia have a number of similar features.
(3) Examination of a number of major studies of personality questionnaires reveals the existence of a shyness factor which is related to but separable from both introversion and neuroticism, and which loads on items referring to feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious, and keeping in the background in certain kinds of social situations.
(4) Animals receiving low-intensity electrical stimulation of the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala while drinking plain tap water were injected with toxic doses of lithium chloride to examine whether brain stimulation can serve as a conditioned stimulus in a bait-shyness paradigm.
(5) Furthermore, profiles of emotions experienced by youths with a depressive disorder differed significantly from emotion profiles of nondepressed youths on the following emotions: enjoyment, surprise, sadness, anger, shame, shyness, guilt, and self-directed hostility.
(6) They have an outrageously provocative nature that's combined with real shyness and awkwardness.
(7) Previously proposed personality correlates of passivity, shyness, and dependency were also in evidence.
(8) In conversation, he is a curious mix of openness and a sweet, faintly diffident shyness.
(9) Unexpectedly, the shyness of adolescents highly sensitive to an imaginary audience increased with age, possibly because they are unwilling to provide themselves with the social experiences necessary for decentering.
(10) Compared with findings in manic subjects, the dimensional score for Harm Avoidance was elevated in all affective groups, "worry and pessimism" was elevated in mixed-state subjects, "shyness with strangers" was elevated in depressed and nonaffective subjects, and "attachment" was lower in depressed and nonaffective subjects.
(11) Twenty-three volunteer subjects were compared with 23 (matched) control subjects on self and parental ratings of anxiety, depression, shyness-sensitivity, sleeping difficulties, perfectionism, psychosomatic problems (unrelated to headache), other behavioural disturbances, major life stress events and parental expectations (i.e.
(12) Love-shyness is believed to be the result of a genetic-biologically rooted temperament and learning experiences with peers and family.
(13) His teachers made accommodations for his painful shyness and he graduated with the grades and test scores that got him into Virginia Tech.
(14) These results support the self-presentational view that fear of being socially evaluated is pivotal to dispositional shyness.
(15) Discussion focuses on the implications of these data for the measurement and conceptualization of shyness.
(16) All the children presented psychological alterations, especially misanthropy and shyness.
(17) Sex differences in the strategic use of shyness are discussed in relation to other research on sex differences in the etiology and correlates of social anxiety.
(18) Sending ability was positively related to teacher's ratings of activity level, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, bossiness, sociability, etc., and negatively related ti shyness, cooperation, emotional inhibition and control, etc.
(19) These findings suggest that the construct of shyness shows a strong continuity from preschool age through adulthood.
(20) Phase 2 compared the five shyness measures with one another on indices of internal consistency and with other relevant measures of emotionality, personality, relationships, and behavior.