| Library / English Dictionary |
SELFISHNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("selfishness" is a kind of...):
stinginess (a lack of generosity; a general unwillingness to part with money)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "selfishness"):
greediness; rapaciousness; voraciousness (an excessive desire for wealth (usually in large amounts))
expedience; opportunism; self-interest; self-seeking (taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others)
Antonym:
unselfishness (the quality of not putting yourself first but being willing to give your time or money or effort etc. for others)
Derivation:
selfish (concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others)
Context examples:
You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I knew that it was base in me not to think more of my aunt, and less of myself; but, so far, selfishness was inseparable from Dora, and I could not put Dora on one side for any mortal creature.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
My mother wept bitterly when he was gone, but for my own part I was not sorry to see his blue back and white shorts going down the garden walk, for I felt, with the heedless selfishness of a child, that we were closer together, she and I, when we were alone.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections; which afterwards, when his own were engaged, made him delay the confession of it, and which finally carried him from Barton.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He has certain qualities very largely developed; selfishness, secrecy, and purpose.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The manoeuvres of selfishness and duplicity must ever be revolting, but I have heard nothing which really surprises me.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Matrimony, as the origin of change, was always disagreeable; and he was by no means yet reconciled to his own daughter's marrying, nor could ever speak of her but with compassion, though it had been entirely a match of affection, when he was now obliged to part with Miss Taylor too; and from his habits of gentle selfishness, and of being never able to suppose that other people could feel differently from himself, he was very much disposed to think Miss Taylor had done as sad a thing for herself as for them, and would have been a great deal happier if she had spent all the rest of her life at Hartfield.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He showed unparalleled malignity and selfishness in evil; he destroyed my friends; he devoted to destruction beings who possessed exquisite sensations, happiness, and wisdom; nor do I know where this thirst for vengeance may end.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Should the throes of change take me in the act of writing it, Hyde will tear it in pieces; but if some time shall have elapsed after I have laid it by, his wonderful selfishness and circumscription to the moment will probably save it once again from the action of his ape-like spite.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
