Both Uses of
diffident
in
Northanger Abbey
- but, where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world, and of being so very early engaged as a partner;†
Chpt 7diffidence = hesitancy and unassertiveness due to a lack of self-confidence
- His knowledge and her ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself put that out of her power; she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert, and it was finally settled between them without any difficulty that his equipage was altogether the most complete of its kind in England, his carriage the neatest, his horse the best goer, and himself the best coachman.†
Chpt 9 *
Definition:
hesitant and unassertive -- often due to a lack of self-confidence