DIFFIDENCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Diffidence

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noun

Diffidence n.

The state of being diffident; distrust; want of confidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others. (Archaic) "That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence of God's mercy."

Distrust of one's self or one's own powers; lack of self-reliance; modesty; modest reserve; bashfulness. "It is good to speak on such questions with diffidence." "An Englishman's habitual diffidence and awkwardness of address."

Synonyms: Humility; bashfulness; distrust; suspicion; doubt; fear; timidity; apprehension; hesitation. See Humility, and Bashfulness.

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Etymology of 'Diffidence'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Diffidence" Quotes from Famous Books

... said Rolfe. "I opened my discourse in three heads. What I see—what I foresee—and what, with diffidence, I advise. Pray don't disturb my methods, or I am done for; never disturb an artist's form. I have told you what I see. What I foresee is this: you will have to cut off the entail with Reginald's consent, when he is of age, and make the Saxon ...

— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... growing dark now, and threading our way through the labyrinth of streets we reached the river face. Here La Marmotte stopped, and abruptly wished me farewell; but I stayed her, thanking her from my heart for her good deed, and ventured, with the utmost diffidence, to say that if she were in need of a friend she could count on ...

— Orrain - A Romance • S. Levett-Yeats

... less erotic sonnets, and spoke it well and simply, with the diffidence which occasionally besets the most confident of authors with regard to their ...

— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly

... This diffidence or this suspicion—or this whatever it was—protected him from those who might entertain covetous and ulterior designs upon his inheritance even better than though he had been brusque and rude; while those ...

— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb

... them," said Saltire, with a sort of boyish diffidence that was odd in him. "They are just the colour of the ...

— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley

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