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.}}