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Meek vs Diffident - What's the difference?

meek | diffident |

As adjectives the difference between meek and diffident

is that meek is humble, modest, meager, or self-effacing while diffident is : Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

As a verb meek

is to tame; to break.

meek

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Humble, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
  • * 1848:
    • Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...
  • * "Blessed are the meek , for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5)
  • Submissive, dispirited.
  • * 1920: , Main Street [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=432765822&tag=Lewis,+Sinclair:+Main+Street,+1920&query=+meek&id=LewMain]
    • What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (US) (of horses) To .

    • 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.}}