self-absorption

[ self-ab-sawrp-shuhn, -zawrp-, self- ]
See synonyms for self-absorption on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. preoccupation with oneself or one's own affairs, especially to the extent that other people and things go unnoticed: His self-absorption was ignored by his parents, who denied the possibility of its being symptomatic of autism.

Origin of self-absorption

1
First recorded in 1860–65

Words Nearby self-absorption

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use self-absorption in a sentence

  • She could drop into one of her moods of self-absorption, or speak as if she were thinking aloud.

  • Even were it easy to picture their existence, their self-absorption would prevent their being interesting.

  • "No," Adriance aroused himself from self-absorption to forbid the upheaval.

    A Man's Hearth | Eleanor M. Ingram
  • He was studying her as he stood before her, seeing suddenly after his momentary self-absorption, her pallor and thinness.

    Paths of Judgement | Anne Douglas Sedgwick
  • The self-absorption of the men, the calm glances of the women humbled our simple souls.

British Dictionary definitions for self-absorption

self-absorption

noun
  1. preoccupation with oneself to the exclusion of others or the outside world

  2. physics the process in which some of the radiation emitted by a material is absorbed by the material itself

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012