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Lugubrious vs Diffident - What's the difference?

lugubrious | diffident |

As adjectives the difference between lugubrious and diffident

is that lugubrious is gloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree while diffident is (archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

lugubrious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • gloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree.
    • The poor lighting and sparse maintenance, plus the rarefied traffic on its wide boulevards, made the effect of Pyongyang on the tourist distinctly lugubrious .
    His client's lugubrious expression tipped off the detective that something lurked beneath her optimistic words.

    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.}}