Robbins works smoothly and invisibly, with a diffident charm that belies his talent for larceny.

NEWYORKER: A Pickpocket��s Tale

He co-stars as Colin, a diffident aspiring writer whose older sister, J.

NEWYORKER: The Color Wheel

The serious, often diffident student was a prime target for pranksters.

FORBES: Magazine Article

So Beane hires as his assistant a pudgy, diffident non-athlete named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an economics major a few years out of Yale, who happens to be a disciple of the sabermetrics guru Bill James.

NEWYORKER: Playing The Numbers

Tristan (Charlie Cox), is a sweet, diffident young man who, as an infant, was delivered to his father in a basket. (The lad's true identity will come as a surprise only to those unfamiliar with the works of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen or Walt Disney).

WSJ: Film Review

More likely, agrees Diana Buttu, a former adviser to Mr Abbas, the famously diffident Palestinian president wanted to avoid a showdown, and simply did not expect Hamas to go so far.

ECONOMIST: From now on, the Palestinians are not themselves

For the profoundly risk averse and cautious (diffident is another word that applies) Japanese, we are talking a requirement for change that most societies endure and achieve only as a consequence of catastrophic circumstances, like war.

FORBES: The Nikkei to Japan's Manufacturers: To Survive, Invest Abroad

With a uniformly white audience in attendance, Ms. Simone sang unsmiling and diffident versions of "Love Me or Leave Me" and "I Loves You, Porgy, " which she scored a rare top-40 hit with in 1959.

NPR: A Posthumous 'Soul of Nina Simone'

He wore the crisp white mawashiof a sekitori (a high ranked competitor), and looked on calmly, while his juniors were diffident in their respect.

BBC: The life of a sumo wrestler