diffident

Conservative leadership contender James Cleverly claims he has been "underestimated" throughout his political career because he has been too "diffident" about his achievements.

Just as in Ukraine, decades of diffident American leadership, compounded by increasingly chaotic domestic politics, let the Gaza crisis spin out of control.

Until now, Scott has been a largely diffident presence in the movies, having distinguished himself most prominently as a masterly TV foil: the Moriarty to Benedict Cumberbatch’s “Sherlock,” the “hot priest” to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag.”

On one side, some students at a handful of elite universities have made harsh anti-Israel statements, some crossing the line into outright antisemitism, and some university presidents have been diffident and mealy-mouthed in their responses.

Not unlike Oldroyd’s sharp debut feature, “Lady Macbeth,” “Eileen” casts a seemingly diffident young woman as the antihero of an unusually cruel liberation story.