self-diffidencen.

a1649 G. Abbott Brief Notes Psalms (1651) (cxix. 124) 611 I know my frailty, therefore in self-diffidence I pray thee, at every turn stand by me to instruct and inable me what to do.

1658 R. Baxter Of Saving Faith xii. 87 And where I dissent with confidence because of my Reasons that seem somewhat cogent, yet is it with a mixture of self-diffidence, when, I think what a person I dissent from.

1744 A. Monro Ess. Compar. Anat. [22] It had been happy for the Publick, if half so much Candour and Self-diffidence had prevailed in the Disputes among the Learned.

1796 Protestant Dissenter's Mag. Dec. 441 Mr. Guyse was..invited to succeed him in the pastoral office: this..he was induced, with great reluctance and self-diffidence, to undertake.

1834 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 23 Aug. 233/3 I remember being once obliged to change places with Dux, and never..will I suffer more of the pains of self-diffidence than I did on that occasion.

1872 J. L. Sanford Estimates Eng. Kings 334 This reserve was caused much less by self-diffidence than by self-conceit.

1902 Gospel in All Lands July 299/2 Vivid consciousness of God begets in thoughtful minds self-diffidence and hiding of the face.

1992 Compar. Lit. Stud. 29 330 There is a special section on ‘the tragic woman’ who has to bear a much heavier burden of self-diffidence.