Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Satisfied with oneself; complacent.
  • noun Self-contentment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Satisfaction with one's self; self-complacency.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Clearly she would have been self-content to promote the disappearance of certain tiresome people in the same expeditious way.2

    Deathride John Mosier 2010

  • Clearly she would have been self-content to promote the disappearance of certain tiresome people in the same expeditious way.2

    Deathride John Mosier 2010

  • She thought very little of his large, free brag, of his patronizing manner, and fine self-content, reference of everything to his own standard, beauty too feminine, and instead of female gentleness, highly cultivated waywardness.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • It did not seem as if the subject of his address were of great importance; indeed, from his pointing, it sometimes appeared as if he were only inquiring his way; but the moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.

    The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 2004

  • The simplest way of treating him was just to let him talk — for it pleased him, and could do no harm — and then to recover self-content by saying what a fool he was when out of hearing.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • It was more than she could bear to see him turn away thus, beaming with self-content.

    Maurice Guest 2003

  • From any direction she came at it, the only conclusion that left her any hope of self-content was this: what she could see around her was all that she could count on.

    Cold Mountain Frazier, Charles, 1950- Cold Mountain 2003

  • From any direction she came at it, the only conclusion that left her any hope of self-content was this: what she could see around her was all that she could count on.

    Cold Mountain Frazier, Charles, 1950- Cold Mountain 1997

  • Here as elsewhere in the poem, she distinguishes her own experiences and the motives that shaped them from those of others, but she does so in an understated way that exemplifies self-content rather than contempt or pride.

    My Name Was Martha: A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem 1993

  • Evadne bent her brow, and let him ruminate a little in infinite self-content, then asked abruptly: "Can men keep accounts who have never seen accounts kept?"

    The Heavenly Twins Madame Sarah Grand

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