What's the difference between diffidently and shyly?
Diffidently
Definition:
(adv.) In a diffident manner.
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.
Shyly
Definition:
(adv.) In a shy or timid manner; not familiarly; with reserve.
Example Sentences:
(1) 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.
(2) As Mahoi visited one afternoon, Amidu waved shyly as Hawa bounded up, forcing her step-grandmother to shout out a reminder about the “no touching” rule in force in the town.
(3) These sort of questions shine shyly through the action of the film all the way through,” the critic wrote.
(4) Gudrun, 72, peers shyly from her voluminous hood and says while she loves Iceland – its cleanliness, beauty, the proximity of hot springs, volcanoes, glaciers – it can't possibly be the best place in the world for women "because we don't get the same salary as men".
(5) (Because obviously, no one minds if you win or lose a game of football – and at the full-time whistle, after meditating for a while, the players pool their wages with the fans, before shyly retiring to their modest homes and ascetic lifestyles.)
(6) Photograph: Caterina Clerici “How much is a photo?” a South Asian lady in shalwar kameez asks, her husband shyly observing Saira next to her.
(7) Moments earlier, the girls had been saying shyly that they did not have any views about the 12 cooling towers and Britain's tallest chimney, which pumps out the country's largest single carbon footprint right in front of their kitchen window.
(8) Indeed, he began a farewell tour, waving shyly as crowds of supporters, two thousand of them at the opening rally in Cardiff, chanted his name.
(9) Amid the hanging flower baskets and stone fountains of a picturesque small market town in Provence, the new young face of the French far right meandered from stall to stall, smiling shyly.
(10) "You should let your wife speak for herself," a bearded activist tells an older man who smiles shyly.
(11) The tepid sunshine wobbles in, polishes his shabby brogues, moves shyly across the surface of the dressing table.
(12) He groped about for ages and then grinned shyly, 'Aiya, I forgot to bring it.'
(13) I asked one of the quieter children for his thoughts, and he pondered silently for a moment, shyly biting his finger.
(14) Deputy editor John Pringle remembered Astor “listening attentively with a smile on his handsome, boyish face, occasionally brushing his hair off his forehead with a characteristic gesture, and sometimes intervening shyly but effectively”.
(15) Channel 4's controller of film and drama stayed shyly in her seat as the cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire took to the stage at Los Angeles's Kodak Theatre last February to collect the Oscar for best film – one of the movie's eight Academy awards.
(16) "We stayed in touch so we could work together on fundraising and activism," she tells me shyly, "and now we will get married in the summer."
(17) I love her and she is my good match," he says in a soft accent, smiling shyly.
(18) Are you ready?” Four little boys, dressed in khaki trousers and polo shirts, came in together and huddled shyly.
(19) "As much as you deserve," was how Dave had reassuringly put it over their anniversary supper, "a take-away kebab," Nick shyly confided.
(20) The 33-year-old smiled shyly as she noticed my camera, before stopping as if to mount the bicycle to check its height.