Both Uses of
diffident
in
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
- The same milk-and-white smile, the same elaborate diffidence, the same apologetic adherence to a code of behavior which he pretended to find ridicuions.†
Chpt 2
- He talked quietly and easily, with a diffidence which Leamas had never seen in him before.
Chpt 20 *diffidence = hesitancy and unassertiveness -- apparently due to a lack of self-confidence
Definition:
-
(diffident) hesitant and unassertive -- often due to a lack of self-confidence