From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Diffidence \Dif"fi*dence\, noun [L. diffidentia.]
1. The state of being diffident; distrust; want of confidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others. [Archaic]
That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence of God's mercy. --Donne.
2. Distrust of one's self or one's own powers; lack of self-reliance; modesty; modest reserve; bashfulness.
It is good to speak on such questions with diffidence. --Macaulay.
An Englishman's habitual diffidence and awkwardness of address. --W. Irving.
Syn: Humility; bashfulness; distrust; suspicion; doubt; fear; timidity; apprehension; hesitation. See {Humility}, and {Bashfulness}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: lack of self-confidence [syn: {self-doubt}, {self-distrust}] [ant: {confidence}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
71 Moby Thesaurus words for "diffidence": Pyrrhonism, afraidness, apprehension, bashfulness, boggle, boggling, caution, cautiousness, compunction, demur, demurral, distrust, distrustfulness, doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubiousness, falter, faltering, fearfulness, half-belief, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitating, hesitation, jumpiness, lack of self-confidence, lack of self-reliance, leeriness, misdoubt, misgiving, mistrust, mistrustfulness, modesty, objection, pause, protest, qualm, qualm of conscience, qualmishness, question, recoil, scruple, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, self-depreciation, self-detraction, self-distrust, self-doubt, self-effacement, shadow of doubt, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, shrinking, shrinkingness, shyness, skepticalness, skepticism, skittishness, stage fright, startlishness, stickling, suspicion, suspiciousness, tentativeness, timidity, timorousness, total skepticism, uncertainty, wariness, weak ego
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Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
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