| He looked rather sheepish and diffident, hands in pockets and a nervous grin on his face. |
| Ford's figures are reflective, capable of ironic detachment, and can be both enthused and diffident at the same time. |
| I never believed that stuff about being a diffident, domesticated Cancerian who loves cooking. |
| A champion of women's education in the truly liberal sense, he helped many a shy diffident young woman face the academic world. |
| The tenor in these passages is assertive, quite at odds with the almost diffident tone of the rest of the book. |
| Someone who had been 'a remarkably undogmatic man, unassuming and even diffident in manner' became obstinate in the extreme. |
