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Cursory vs Diffident - What's the difference?

cursory | diffident |

As adjectives the difference between cursory and diffident

is that cursory is hasty; superficial; careless while diffident is (archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

cursory

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • hasty; superficial; careless
    • Most junk mail requires only a cursory glance.
  • (obsolete) Running about; not stationary.

    • Derived terms

    * cursorily * cursoriness

    See also

    * cursor

    diffident

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (archaic): Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.
  • Lacking confidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve.
  • *
    • Having therefore—but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter VIII , passage=At an early point in these exchanges I had started to sidle to the door, and I now sidled through it, rather like a diffident crab on some sandy beach trying to avoid the attentions of a child with a spade.}}