DIFFIDENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does diffidence mean? 

• DIFFIDENCE (noun)
  The noun DIFFIDENCE has 1 sense:

1. lack of self-confidence

  Familiarity information: DIFFIDENCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIFFIDENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lack of self-confidence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

diffidence; self-distrust; self-doubt

Hypernyms ("diffidence" is a kind of...):

timidity; timidness; timorousness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "diffidence"):

hesitance; hesitancy (a feeling of diffidence and indecision about doing something)

unassertiveness (diffidence about self promotion)

Antonym:

confidence (a feeling of trust (in someone or something))

Derivation:

diffident (lacking self-confidence)

diffident (showing modest reserve)

 Context examples 

I always told you she was—a little; but you will soon overcome all that part of her reserve which ought to be overcome, all that has its foundation in diffidence.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He was not generally popular among the undergraduates, though it always seemed to me that what was set down as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural diffidence.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is years since the incidents of which I speak took place, and yet it is with diffidence that I allude to them.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"What do you want?" I asked, with awkward diffidence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My father was in the meantime overjoyed, and, in the bustle of preparation, only recognised in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Miss Darcy, though with a diffidence which marked her little in the habit of giving invitations, readily obeyed.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The youth sat down as directed, but reluctantly and with diffidence.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her diffidence, gratitude, and softness made every expression of indifference seem almost an effort of self-denial; seem, at least, to be giving nearly as much pain to herself as to him.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I profit so much by it myself, in many ways—at least I ought to—that no one can be more convinced of it than myself; and therefore I speak with great diffidence, my dear Jane, I assure you.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

After waiting a week, two weeks, and half a week longer, desperation conquered diffidence, and he wrote to the editor of The Billow, suggesting that possibly through some negligence of the business manager his little account had been overlooked.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)