self-ˈsacrifice
[self- 1 a.]
Sacrifice of oneself; the giving up of one's own interests, happiness, and desires, for the sake of duty or the welfare of others.
| 1805 Wordsw. Poems Sentim., Ode to Duty 54 Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice. 1843 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 101 What a strange mystery is that of mutual self-sacrifice! to exist for one moment for another. 1885 J. Martineau Types Eth. Th. I. i. i. §7. 226 Absolute self-sacrifice of the passions and imagination. |
So
self-ˈsacrificed pa. pple.;
self-ˈsacrificer, a self-sacrificing person;
self-sacriˈficial a. = next;
self-ˈsacrificing ppl. a., making a sacrifice of one's life, etc. (whence
-ˈsacrificingly adv.,
-ˈsacrificingness).
| a 1711 Ken Preparatives Poet. Wks. IV. 83 *Self-sacrific'd, his Father's Will, And our Redemption to fulfil. 1900 Inscr. in Postmen's Park, Aldersgate St., London, Mary Rogers, stewardess of the Stella, March 30, 1899, self-sacrificed by giving up her life-belt, and voluntarily going down in the sinking ship. |
| 1668 H. More Div. Dial. iii. xxv. I. 467 Martyrs and *Self-sacrificers to but so faint a Shadow..of the first uncreated Perfection. 1903 Sat. Rev. 4 Apr. 421/2 It is usual for the self-sacrificer to be a consistently melodramatic person. |
| 1855 Bailey Mystic, etc. 98 The painful pelican *Self-sacrificial. 1893 H. R. Reynolds in Life (1898) 473 Your self-sacrificial love to a great duty. |
| 1817 Moore Lalla Rookh, Parad. & Peri (ed. 2) 149 That precious sigh Of pure, *self-sacrificing love. 1897 Gladstone E. Crisis 14 In the midst of a high and self-sacrificing enthusiasm, the Greek Government and people have shown good sense. |
| 1882 Advance (Chicago) 5 Oct., *Self-sacrificingly non-denominational in all directions. |
| 1871 Smiles Charac. ix. (1876) 239 In *self-sacrificingness,..in the ordinary intercourse of life, mainly consists the difference between being well and ill bred. |