(a.) Wanting confidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve.
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.
Modest
Definition:
(a.) Restraining within due limits of propriety; not forward, bold, boastful, or presumptious; rather retiring than pushing one's self forward; not obstructive; as, a modest youth; a modest man.
(a.) Observing the proprieties of the sex; not unwomanly in act or bearing; free from undue familiarity, indecency, or lewdness; decent in speech and demeanor; -- said of a woman.
(a.) Evincing modestly in the actor, author, or speaker; not showing presumption; not excessive or extreme; moderate; as, a modest request; modest joy.
Example Sentences:
(1) Incubation with IFN alpha or IFN gamma for 24 h resulted in only modest cytokinetic alterations, and they did not modify the effects of FUra.
(2) The active agents modestly improved treadmill exercise duration time until 1 mm ST segment depression (3%), and only propranolol and diltiazem had significant effects.
(3) Brown's model, which goes far further than those from any other senior Labour figure, and the modest new income tax powers for Holyrood devised when he was prime minister, edge the party much closer to the quasi-federal plans championed by the Liberal Democrats.
(4) The standard varies from modest to lavish – choose carefully and you could be staying in an antique-filled room with your host's paintings on the walls, and breakfasting on the veranda of a tropical garden.
(5) Bupropion, in contrast, had a modest effect only in CD-1 mice.
(6) These data support a modest role for alpha 1-adrenergic coronary vasoconstriction during exercise but fail to document an additional role for postsynaptic alpha 2-adrenergic coronary vasoconstriction during exercise.
(7) Alterations in mean systolic blood pressure appeared to be modest, consisting of a 10 percent decrease from the control level, related to sedation, and a 10 percent rise from baseline during the procedure, associated with a concomitant mild tachycardia.
(8) The patient made modest improvement with high-dose intravenous steroids.
(9) Modest reductions in renal function as measured by clearances of inulin and p-aminohippurate occurred acutely only in the patients with renal impairment.
(10) Although the debate in the US has led to some piecemeal reforms – including the USA Freedom Act and modest policy changes – many of the most intrusive government surveillance programs remain largely intact.
(11) Ultimately, both Geffen and Browne turned out to be correct: establishing the pattern for Zevon's career, the albums sold modestly but the critics loved them.
(12) Simultaneous metabolic studies of human normal fibrinogen and asialofibrinogen in rabbits revealed only a modest decrease in the half-life of the asialoprotein compared to the intact protein, with no preferential uptake of the asialo-derivative by the liver.
(13) Levels of involvement in the program were modest, with only 16% of those screened having over 10 clinical contacts and 24% still involved after 3 months.
(14) Testosterone and estrogen administration at low or modest doses to individuals with the capacity to produce GH causes GH production and IGF-I levels to increase.
(15) The more modest effect of (n-3) fatty acid supplementation in decreasing LTB4 generation was not due to blockade of the cyclooxygenase pathway.
(16) The effect of volume expansion on sodium, calcium and magnesium remaining in the proximal tubule was relatively modest and not affected by furosemide.
(17) On the other side of the Atlantic, a more modest, quieter challenger plans to take on the US electric car giant.
(18) In conclusion, a zipper technique has been outlined that allows effective continuing drainage of the septic abdomen, permits early diagnosis of organ damage, is rapid and cost effective, minimizes ventilator dependency and gastrointestinal complications, is well tolerated by the patients, and has produced a modest 65 per cent survival rate in the first 34 critically ill patients in whom it was used.
(19) In order to improve the modest oral activity of PGE2 as an inhibitor of gastric acid secretion, analogs were prepared and tested orally in histamine-challenged rats.
(20) Specific binding of insulin did not differ between control and modestly insulinopenic diabetics but was increased significantly in the severely insulinopenic diabetics.