How to Use diffidence in a Sentence

diffidence

noun

• To him, my diffidence may as well be a foreign language.
  — Annie Tritt, Vox, 28 Mar. 2018
• Their men’s team collapsed in a heap in the World Cup two years ago and continues to play with a listlessness and diffidence in these Olympics.
  — Michael Powell, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2016
• By the time the final act rolls around, Lamb approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom.
  — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2021
• By the time the final act rolls around, ‘Lamb’ approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom.
  — Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
• King-Lu draws Cookie out of his melancholy diffidence, while Cookie calms some of his friend’s restlessness.
  — New York Times, 3 Mar. 2020
• Truthful to Julie's pre-feminist heart, Mueller adopts a tender diffidence.
  — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 17 May 2018
• But Ross’s own diffidence and her belief in collaboration also kept her work in the shadows.
  — Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 29 Mar. 2017
• But Ross’s own diffidence and her belief in collaboration also kept her work in the shadows.
  — Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 29 Mar. 2017
• But the government’s blatant bias during the campaign was at odds with this apparent diffidence.
  — The Economist, 18 Oct. 2017
• And the former President's quasi-endorsement of Abrams reveals the diffidence among party leaders about how to proceed.
  — Michael Warren, CNN, 28 Sep. 2021
• The decision to sack Rex Tillerson on Tuesday morning, without telling him face-to-face, is -- as of this hour -- the most glaring example of Trump's sudden-onset diffidence.
  — Gregory Krieg, CNN, 13 Mar. 2018
• Holga’s comments begin to sound one-note, and patience wears thin with Simon’s diffidence and Doric’s indifference.
  — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
• Clattering and slow-moving, the 2021 Brood X swarmageddon taunts cats and dogs, who seem incapable of affecting diffidence.
  — New York Times, 14 June 2021
• Boehner did little to rein in the scorched-earth tactics of the Tea Partiers: His diffidence famously led to a 2013 government shutdown, in which the extremists in his party refused to pass a budget that funded Obamacare.
  — Natalie Shure, The New Republic, 12 Apr. 2021
• One lesson of the book is that people reared in places saturated with complicated racial meanings ought to treat their convictions about race with diffidence and perhaps with suspicion.
  — Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022
• His touch is humane, restrained sometimes to the point of diffidence, but genuinely interested in locating small and large truths within broad comic concepts.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 29 July 2019
• During public engagements, Sturgeon moves with a certain diffidence, letting others go through doors first.
  — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
• Trapped by governmental controls and near-negligible growth rates, there was a diffidence that lasted for decades since Independence.
  — S. Gopikrishna Warrier, Quartz India, 20 Jan. 2020
• Thomas’s gentle diffidence, and his director’s fiercely rigorous style, leave his motives denser than unproved sourdough.
  — Ofir Raul Graizer, New York Times, 28 June 2018
• One video shows the two cats at their first meeting exhibiting mutual curiosity and typical feline diffidence.
  — Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2023
• Ron’s diffidence, a trait both touching and laugh-inducing, is the antithesis of Ethan’s pizzazz, while Aquino shows that the forceful, even intimidating Deborah obviously was Alice’s role model.
  — Orange County Register, 5 Apr. 2017
• The general principle would seem to apply: Prosecutors are supposed to consider the impact of their actions on significant events outside the criminal-justice system, and to act with due diffidence.
  — Michael B. Mukasey, WSJ, 16 July 2018
• The asymmetry between the strategic single focus of the Christian right and the secular majority’s diffidence in confronting claims to religious privilege explains a good deal: political victory goes to those who try harder.
  — Linda Greenhouse, The New York Review of Books, 1 July 2021
• His diffidence blends well with his shambling characterization and Ford’s unhurried tempo.
  — J. Hoberman, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2018
• But in an administration where diffidence can be as contemptible as disloyalty, Tillerson’s retiring leadership style threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  — vanityfair.com, 22 Sep. 2017
• Only resolution and resourcefulness, not diffidence and jokes, will secure victory.
  — Kyle Smith, National Review, 19 July 2019

Last Updated: 29 Aug 2024