diffident adj

1 showing modest reserve; "she was diffident when offering a comment on the professor's lecture"

2 lacking self-confidence; "stood in the doorway diffident and abashed"; "problems that call for bold not timid responses"; "a very unsure young man" [syn: shy, timid, unsure]

English

Etymology

present participle of diffidere, "to mistrust"

Adjective

1. Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

2. Lacking confidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve.

bashful, boggling, cautious, cowardly, coy, demure, demurring, deprecative, deprecatory, faltering, fearful, fearing, fearsome, goosy, hesitant, hesitating, in fear, jibbing, jumpy, modest, mousy, nervous, qualmish, rabbity, reluctant, retiring, scary, scrupling, scrupulous, self-deprecating, self-depreciating, self-depreciative, self-distrustful, self-doubting, self-effacing, shaky, shilly-shallying, shivery, shrinking, shy, skittery, skittish, squeamish, startlish, sticking, stickling, straining, tentative, timid, timorous, trembling, tremulous, trepidant, trigger-happy, unassertive, unassured, unselfconfident, unselfreliant