Far from being arrogant, today's doctors are diffident and afflicted by insecurity and self-doubt. |
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Emotionally diffident, he lacks the physical and dramatic force to invest the role with heroism. |
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He is, accordingly, by turns bumptious, diffident, selfish, generous, thoughtless, befuddled and acute. |
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He is unfailingly friendly, diffident and self-deprecating with an old-fashioned sense of fair play. |
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The tenor in these passages is definitive and assertive, quite at odds with the unassuming, almost diffident, tone of the rest of the book. |
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He was diffident about his achievements, in contrast to the self-aggrandisement common to autobiographers. |
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Ford's figures are reflective, capable of ironic detachment, and can be both enthused and diffident at the same time. |
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Radcliffe is witty and entertaining, but talks in diffident stops and starts. |
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Thirty years later he is still embarrassed or diffident every time he is confronted with even a simple practical task. |
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Far from being diffident, gratulatory or admiring, patients may bubble with entitlement, seethe with rage and insist on constant approval. |
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Someone who had been 'a remarkably undogmatic man, unassuming and even diffident in manner' became obstinate in the extreme. |
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I never believed that stuff about being a diffident, domesticated Cancerian who loves cooking. |
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You become anxious, and this in turn causes you to become diffident, which consequently kills your body's alacrity. |
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He looked rather sheepish and diffident, hands in pockets and a nervous grin on his face. |
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A champion of women's education in the truly liberal sense, he helped many a shy diffident young woman face the academic world. |
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With no one to listen to them, they get trapped in their problems and grow up diffident and unsure of their abilities. |
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Despite his quiet, diffident manner, the Humberside police chief is becoming used to an unflattering limelight. |
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Ironic, too, that he's diffident to the point of sheepishness, even in front of the most adoring audience. |
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The tenor in these passages is assertive, quite at odds with the almost diffident tone of the rest of the book. |
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I'm tired of hearing people talk about Canada as a bland place, full of timid and diffident people. |
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We rarely see a diffident reformer, or an audacious bureaucrat, or a decisive politician. |
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In person, St. Laurent was a shy, diffident man, with a quiet reserve that appeared almost courtly. |
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He was too nervous – petrified before a big case, and diffident about his own abilities. |
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And his diffident manner should not be mistaken for a lack of energy. |
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He made sure that his furniture received the maximum publicity at international fairs, although he came across as a surprisingly diffident and modest man. |
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After reading her views on the debate, it makes me wish I had something weighty or political to say, but I'm a little diffident about the whole thing. |
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He was as diffident as you would expect, and, as with most famous people, my main thought upon seeing him in the flesh was that he looked just like he does on television. |
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They are, with good reason, less diffident and less fearful. |
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Having to defend your material, in that company… you just couldn't be diffident. |
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But the party no longer needs to be diffident about the issue, the critics continue. |
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D'Estaing was an energetic commander, but his lack of naval experience caused him to be diffident before smaller British forces. |
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Since then, alas, he has shown himself to be diffident, patrician and out of touch with people's everyday concerns. |
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The culturally conservative wine world tends to be diffident in the face of a name that is successful in other sectors. |
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We are so diffident about reproduction – but especially when it goes wrong. |
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Some authors are diffident about their thesis, burying it in a blizzard of qualifications and footnotes. |
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Surely, and I'm not affiliated with the law society, so I feel a bit diffident about speaking about their experiences or expertise. |
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She's compelling throughout, and has a diffident, aloof sexiness that makes the record intriguing and accessible. |
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As played by Hall, Charlotte is a mix of ingenuousness and coquetry, a femme fatale with a very diffident air. |
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His accessibility, diffident charm and intellect win over western ambassadors. |
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At 70, he is not sprightly and, remarkably for a politician, is diffident in public. |
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When helping deal with a populist anti-corruption campaign this summer he seemed diffident. |
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To refuse to acknowledge this presence is to appear diffident or indifferent to the presence and fate of those sent there at our direction. |
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The true teacher caressingly enables the diffident ones to find their own centre of self-confidence. |
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There are some communities that are diffident or closed in on themselves and some courageous and even daring communities. |
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His capacity for taking the mickey out of defences was also legendary even though he could be diffident in front of goal in a way that Finney would have found unnatural. |
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He was charming, diffident but above all very friendly, with no airs or graces. |
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Every study ever performed has shown that the fit and lean outlive the dumpy and diffident every time. |
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Dostoevsky evinced the conviction of having been divinely commissioned in a manner that was diffident, almost shy, and utterly devoid of braggadocio. |
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Some producers may be diffident or even hostile to the idea that a third party is interested in somehow 'managing as digital heritage' the materials they have created. |
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By contrast Congress's Rahul Gandhi looks diffident and unsure, seeming to spend more time studying spread-sheets and tinkering with internal party reforms than explaining why he would want to rule India. |
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Major's three successors as Tory leader were equally diffident about appealing to Murdoch et al. Blair was succeeded by Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, who were respectively indifferent to and hostile to the Tory press barons. |
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As a relative novice to computing, I felt a little diffident joining this august geekly company, but they were most welcoming. |
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Some may be diffident in writing, but forceful in personal contacts. |
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A diffident, dedicated man, Bradley seemed the personification of rectitude. He never got too big for his britches. |
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Tall, thin and diffident around the edges, he speaks at twice normal speed, often inserting parenthetical commentary on his thoughts as he gallops ahead. |
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It seems that women may be more diffident about opening up disagreements. |
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Salter, whose manner can be diffident, thought for a moment. |
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The second conclusion is that an observation of jurisprudence, whether in the United States or in Europe, should make economists diffident about affirming a normative foundation for the allocation of competences. |
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Joseph Smith, a diffident, conscientious young man with moist hands and an awkward, absent-minded manner, was head gardener at Wotton Vanborough. |
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While the Government proposes a package of measures which seems diffident and overdue, civil society stands behind stronger social and productive intervention. |
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Strange, then, that he was so diffident about reaching the public. |
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This preliminary draft is a little diffident and at times lacks realism. |
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But there was nothing modest or diffident about her ambitions. |
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In fact the illegal status makes the public officers rather diffident. |
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Susan is usually a diffident, unforceful character, putty in the hands of Beverly. |
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Women are more diffident than their male colleagues, but the study also shows that they are more methodological and determined once the initial obstacles have been overcome. |
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