1 Even with Honey, with whom he had an unspoken understanding of marriage when he came into his property next fall, he was diffident and silent.
2 Now, Hugh Elsing, Rene, the Simmons boys, Andy Bonnell and the others found him pleasant, diffident about putting himself forward and embarrassed when they spoke of the obligation they owed him.
3 She felt his kiss, diffident and reverent, on her eyelid.
4 After a time he began to sidle near to the youth, and in a diffident way try to make him a friend.
5 Their presence had made him diffident of himself when he was a muff in Clongowes and it had made him diffident of himself also while he had held his equivocal position in Belvedere.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man By James JoyceContext Highlight In Chapter 4 6 Now that she had fallen to him so easily, he wondered why he had been so diffident.
7 Here I am, a shy, diffident sort of man.
8 She was not exactly shy, but diffident, and rather overawed by her sister, who had educated her, and who had no suspicion of the fact.
9 Princess Mary seemed even quieter and more diffident than usual.
10 Now, Mr. Bhaer was a diffident man and slow to offer his own opinions, not because they were unsettled, but too sincere and earnest to be lightly spoken.
11 He was too diffident to do justice to himself; but when his natural shyness was overcome, his behaviour gave every indication of an open, affectionate heart.
12 There was an unceremonious directness, a searching, decided steadfastness in his gaze now, which told that intention, and not diffidence, had hitherto kept it averted from the stranger.
13 Jane's temper was not desponding, and she was gradually led to hope, though the diffidence of affection sometimes overcame the hope, that Bingley would return to Netherfield and answer every wish of her heart.
14 Miss Darcy, though with a diffidence which marked her little in the habit of giving invitations, readily obeyed.
15 This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities.