Diffident vs Doubtful - What's the difference?
diffident | doubtful | Synonyms |
(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.
*
* {{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.}}
Subject to, or causing doubt
or showing doubt, sceptical
Undecided or of uncertain outcome
(obsolete) Fearsome, dreadful.
*, Bk.XIV, Ch.vii:
*:‘With whom,’ seyde Sir Percivale, ‘shall I fyght?’ ‘With the moste douteful champion of the worlde.’
Improbable or unlikely
Suspicious, or of dubious character
Unclear or unreliable
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=E.R. Eddison, title=The Worm Ouroboros
, passage=The pupils of her great eyes were large in the doubtful lamplight, swallowing their green fires in deep pools of mystery and darkness.}}
Diffident is a synonym of doubtful.
As adjectives the difference between diffident and doubtful
is that diffident is (archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful while doubtful is subject to, or causing doubt.diffident
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Having therefore—but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.