Library / English Dictionary

CYNICAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Believing the worst of human nature and motives; having a sneering disbelief in e.g. selflessness of others

Synonyms:

cynical; misanthropic; misanthropical

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

distrustful (having or showing distrust)

Derivation:

cynic (someone who is critical of the motives of others)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"That's true." She hesitated. "Well, I've had a very bad time, Nick, and I'm pretty cynical about everything."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

We got up, and she explained that we were going to find the host—I had never met him, she said, and it was making me uneasy. The undergraduate nodded in a cynical, melancholy way.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)