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selfishness - 3 dictionary results

self⋅ish

[sel-fish]
–adjective
1. devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.
2. characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives.

Origin:
1630–40; self + -ish 1


self⋅ish⋅ly, adverb
self⋅ish⋅ness, noun


1. self-interested, self-seeking, egoistic; illiberal, parsimonious, stingy.
self·ish   (sěl'fĭsh)   
adj.  
  1. 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).
  2. Arising from, characterized by, or showing selfishness: a selfish whim.
self'ish·ly adv., self'ish·ness n.

Selfishness

Self"ish*ness\, n. The quality or state of being selfish; exclusive regard to one's own interest or happiness; that supreme self-love or self-preference which leads a person to direct his purposes to the advancement of his own interest, power, or happiness, without regarding those of others.

Selfishness,- a vice utterly at variance with the happiness of him who harbors it, and, as such, condemned by self-love. --Sir J. Mackintosh.

Syn: See Self-love.
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