Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Concerned chiefly or only with oneself: "Selfish men were . . . trying to make capital for themselves out of the sacred cause of human rights” ( Maria Weston Chapman).
- adj. Arising from, characterized by, or showing selfishness: a selfish whim.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Caring only for self; influenced solely or chiefly by motives of personal or private pleasure or advantage: as, a selfish person.
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of one who cares solely or chiefly for his own personal or private pleasure, interest, or advantage; proceeding from love of self: as, selfish motives.
- Synonyms Mean, illiberal, self-seeking.
Wiktionary
- adj. Holding one’s self-interest as the standard for decision making.
- adj. Having regard for oneself above others’ well-being.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Caring supremely or unduly for one's self; regarding one's own comfort, advantage, etc., in disregard, or at the expense, of those of others.
- adj. (Ethics) Believing or teaching that the chief motives of human action are derived from love of self.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others
Etymologies
- From self + -ish (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Nor yet would the term selfish apply to an East End music hall audience when they eject any one who belongs to a different social class to themselves and wears good clothes.”
“There is the word selfish, that is, being absorbed in one's own self; in getting every stream to flow by his own door.”
“Don Manuel was indignant at what he termed the selfish and unfeeling conduct of Villabuena, who would thus sacrifice his daughter's happiness to his own pride and ambition.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845.
“Now this is what I call selfish, after all, said I to myself: you will only enjoy yourself with those whose broken peace you have mended.”
“But Calipari saw what he called "selfish" play in the first half.”
“In his first public appearance since revelations of marital infidelity caused his spectacular fall from grace, Woods apologized for what he called his selfish and irresponsible behaviour.”
“In his first public appearance since the scandal erupted, Woods apologized for what he called selfish and irresponsible behavior.”
“Dawkins coined the term selfish gene as a way of expressing the gene-centered view of evolution, which holds that evolution is best viewed as acting on genes, and that selection at the level of organisms or populations almost never overrides selection based on genes.”
“In a state of the nation address Wednesday, Medvedev lashed out against what he called selfish U.S. foreign policy and announced Moscow will set up a new missile base near the Polish border.”
“I don't think the word "selfish" is even a little appropriate here.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘selfish’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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SCIE - game theory
pure game, mixed game, general game, Brower's fixed point, Lemke-Howson algo..., Nash equilibrium, zero sum, Sperner's lemma, Borsuk-Ulam theorem, ham sandwich cut, auction, bidder and 33 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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Chainlink's Words
hat, opalescent, opal, emerald, sapphire, scythe, carnival, calliope, brilliant, awesome, feather, fantastic and 268 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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words that others have used to descri...
worthless, dog, slut, beautiful, sexy, creative, lazy, funny, crazy, adaptable, weird, hot and 15 more...
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Personality, Mateusz
affectionate, aggressive, ambitious, bossy, charming, competitive, independent, jealous, manipulative, moody, reliable, selfish and 4 more...
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read&vocab
porridge, huge, gleam, battered, declared, thump, exchange, whisper, hang, bent, precious, polish and 12 more...
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GGS DDU
stumble upon, day trader, hug, tightly, tight, sleep tight, lesbian, gay, homosexual, brokeback mountain, cv, résumé and 50 more...
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thug life
selfish, dowdy, stagnant, articulate, amory, blaine, amory blaine, gaudy, advanced, sadness, life, frustration and 24 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for selfish.
ruzuzu Dear gangerh from 2008:
Thank you for saying exactly what I wanted to hear in 2013.
Sincerely, ruzuzu
Feb 12, 2013
gangerh Devoid of consideration of the selfishness of others. Thank you Ambrose Bierce. Feb 15, 2008