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SELFISH
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others
Example:
Selfish men were...trying to make capital for themselves out of the sacred cause of civil rights
Classified under:
Similar:
egotistic; egotistical; narcissistic; self-loving (characteristic of those having an inflated idea of their own importance)
self-seeking; self-serving (interested only in yourself)
Also:
egocentric; egoistic; egoistical; self-centered; self-centred (limited to or caring only about yourself and your own needs)
inconsiderate (lacking regard for the rights or feelings of others)
stingy; ungenerous (unwilling to spend (money, time, resources, etc.))
Antonym:
unselfish (disregarding your own advantages and welfare over those of others)
Derivation:
selfishness (stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others)
Context examples:
We, however, are not selfish, and we believe that God is with us through all this blackness, and these many dark hours.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
She is a selfish, hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
It is a great deal more natural than one could wish, that a young man, brought up by those who are proud, luxurious, and selfish, should be proud, luxurious, and selfish too.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Being an absolutely selfish man, when a chance presented itself he did not allow either his sister’s happiness or your reputation to hold his hand.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But between ourselves, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a petty way as ever came before me.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"I'm not selfish."
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It would have been selfish to frighten you all when Marmee was so anxious about Meg, and Amy away, and you so happy with Laurie—at least I thought so then.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He might have softened his father; but all, perhaps all, would think her selfish and ungrateful.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Yet one duty remained to me, the recollection of which finally triumphed over my selfish despair.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Again I tell you it is not the insignificant private individual—the mere man, with the man's selfish senses—I wish to mate: it is the missionary.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
