diffident

And, on a global level, the usually diffident IMF is proposing that banks be subject to special punitive taxes.

And, incidentally, to encourage retiring and diffident lady interviewers.

He seemed diffident, but it was evident that he did not wish her to go, and once more she felt that he aroused her curiosity.

He reached out and touched my hand––a fleeting, diffident touch––and gently answered, “Ay, lad; your feet will stray.”

He pushed the diffident greenness back, and went whistling rudely across the lands.

If the tyrannous day of our fathers had but possessed the means of these our more diffident times!