self-ˈrighteous, a.
[self- 3 b.]
Righteous in one's own esteem.
| a 1680 Charnock Mercy for Chief of Sinners (1847) 15 This self-righteous temper is like an external heat got into the body, which produceth an hectic fever. a 1820 I. Milner Serm. iii. I. 118 Pharisaical, self-righteous views and motives. 1854 C. Hodge On Romans vii. 200 Legal or self-righteous strivings after holiness. 1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter 259 His severity was reserved for the self-righteous. |
So
self-ˈrighteously adv.;
self-ˈrighteousness, the condition of being self-righteous; righteousness for which one gives oneself credit.
| 1901 Westm. Gaz. 1 July 7/3 A vigilant police are *self-righteously discussing whether they should enforce the lodging-house law. |
| 1656 Owen Mortif. Sin To Rdr. (1668) A 3 b, The deplorable Issues of Superstition, *self-righteousness and Anxiety of Conscience. 1833 Whately in Life (1866) I. 209, I understand the disease which you call self-righteousness: though the word is hardly yet good English. 1893 Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 27 The unconscious malevolence of self-righteousness which distorted the critical appreciations..of Lord Macaulay. |