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diffident

[dif-i-duhnt] / ˈdɪf ɪ dənt /


Example Sentences

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In “One of Us,” Elizabeth Day’s shrewd novel of political ambition and personal retribution, the unlikely avenger is a diffident British art historian.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 13, 2026

But the overarching tone, across the board, is oddly diffident.

From Slate Apr. 25, 2025

They may share an extreme level of competitiveness but they are very different characters, Newey's diffident nature contrasting with Horner's front-foot aggression.

From BBC Feb. 8, 2024

Not unlike Oldroyd’s sharp debut feature, “Lady Macbeth,” “Eileen” casts a seemingly diffident young woman as the antihero of an unusually cruel liberation story.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 30, 2023

His eyes were soft and irisless and brown, and suddenly I saw Roskus watching me from behind all his whitefolks’ claptrap of uniforms and politics and Harvard manner, diffident, secret, inarticulate and sad.

From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner




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