self-

self-
  the word self used as a prefix [OE. self-, sylf-, ? occas. instr. selfe-, corresp. to OS. self-, MLG. sulf-, MDu. self- (Du. zelf-), OHG., MHG. selb-, selp- (Ger. selb-, also genitive selbs-, later selbst-), ON. sialf- (MSw. sialf-, also genitive sialfs-, Sw. sjelf-, Norw. sj{obar}lv-, Da. selv-), Goth. silba-] with reflexive meaning = ‘oneself’, ‘itself’ in various relations with the second element of the compound.
  The basis of compounds falling under headings 1 and 2 (below) is normally a reflexive verbal phrase; thus, from ‘to accuse oneself’ is formed a series of formally related words, self-accusation, self-accusatory, self-accusing, self-accused, any of which may arise independently of the others.
  In OE. the number of recorded compounds is 13, of which half exhibit the prefix in the objective relation. The only survivals of the OE. compounds in ME. are self-will and its cognates; these, together with the plant-name self-heal (which may also have been common Germanic) are the only representatives in that period of the prefix-formation. Self- first appears as a living formative element about the middle of the 16th cent., probably to a great extent by imitation or reminiscence of Greek compounds in αὐτο-. The number of self-compounds was greatly augmented towards the middle of the 17th cent., when many new words appeared in theological and philosophical writing, some of which had apparently a restricted currency of about 50 years (e.g. 1645–1690), while a large proportion became established and have a continuous history down to the present time. The latter, with the compounds formally related to them, are for the most part treated in this Dictionary as Main words, together with all such as require specific definition. With regard to the remainder, since the prefix is of unlimited application, no attempt has been made to represent with fullness the extent to which it has been employed either in early or in recent times, and in the present article only a typical selection is given from the hundreds of compounds for which evidence is forthcoming.
  In the Elizabethan period the imperfect union of self- with the second element of the compound appears to be evident from the occasional correlation of the prefix with an adj., as strange and self-abuse (Shakes.), wilful and self-murder (Foxe); cf. self and vain conceit (Shakes.).
  1. Compounds in which self- is in the objective relation to the second element: a. with nouns of action; as self-abandonment = abandonment by oneself of oneself, one's power, position, rights, desires, ambitions, or the like.

1901 ‘L. Malet’ Hist. Sir R. Calmady i. ix. 74 Her mother love..had none of the sweet *self-abandon..which that earlier passion had.

1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xvii, The..generous *self-abandonment with which the Master of Ravenswood renounced his feudal enmity. 1958 R. Knox Priestly Life ix. 96 Self-abandonment has been preached by writers of undoubted orthodoxy.

1690 Norris Beatitudes (1692) 23 To descend into the lowest Abyss of *Self-abdication.

a 1763 Mem. G. Psalmanazar (1764) 21 The duties of self-denial, *self-abhorrence, fasting.

1750 Richardson Let. 29 Mar. (1964) 157 The place allows the latter [sc. conversationalists] to sit far enough from the [card-] tables not to be interrupted with remarks, blames, *self-acquittals, of the engaged. 1892 ‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant xiv. 132 You can't get the best of all verdicts, self-acquittal.

1848 J. S. Mill Pol. Econ. I. ii. xi. 406 Population had exercised its power of *self-adjustment. 1962 A. Battersby Guide to Stock Control v. 51 This capacity for self-adjustment is a necessary part of any practical control system.

1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 176 With⁓out..respect of any, In will peculiar, and in *selfe admission.

1806 Byron On a Distant view of Harrow vi, Fired by loud plaudits and *self-adulation, I regarded myself as a Garrick revived.

1707 Norris Treat. Hum. v. 205 To accomplish this *self-advancement.

1840 J. S. Mill in Edin. Rev. LXXII. 27 What is saved in the workmanship may be more profitably expended in *self-advertisement. 1891 Self-advertisement [see self-centredness].

1854 Geo. Eliot tr. Feuerbach's Essence Christianity iii. 45 The exclusive *self-affirmation of the human nature. 1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 53 That desire for..self-affirmation..is so characteristic of man at all stages of his development. 1979 Dædalus Summer 92 We are thrown back on our own truth and to the act of self-affirmation that constitutes our personal identity.

1842 Manning Serm. xx. (1848) I. 305 Fasting, and *self-affliction.

1799 Monthly Rev. XXX. 228 That the system of this prince is founded on views of *self-aggrandizement. 1937 Discovery July 225/2 A Board of Directors seeking only self-aggrandisement.

1716 Pope Wks. (1751) I. Pref. p. iv, The agreeable power of *self-amusement when a man is idle or alone.

1819 Shelley Cenci ii. ii, Such *self-anatomy shall teach the will Dangerous secrets.

1764 Goldsm. Trav. 280 Nor weighs the solid worth of *self-applause.

1856 Grote Greece ii. xcvi. XII. 518 This song is curious, as..affording a measure of their *self-appreciation.

1751 Earl of Orrery Rem. Swift ix. (1752) 73 With the smiles of *self-approbation upon her equals. 1863 A. Blomfield Mem. C. J. Blomfield II. viii. 173 Had he been given to self-approbation, [he] might have claimed no small part of the credit.

1812 Crabbe Tales xix. 166 He began to feel Some *self-approval on his bosom steal.

1857 Geo. Eliot Ess. (1884) 37 The *self-betrayal that runs through all his works.

1931 G. F. Stout Mind & Matter 174 Each blindly strives towards its own self-maintenance and *self-betterment. 1977 A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory i. 39 He criticizes Comte along with Spencer for..treating the impulse to self-betterment as if it were a general cause of the evolution of society.

a 1711 Ken Preparatives Poet. Wks. IV. 52 Confusion, Terrour, Trembling, Shame, And fierce *Self-blame.

1934 R. Campbell Broken Record vii. 161 Amongst the average English literary men, it is usual for them to go soft at thirty (the moral *self-castration of the exoletus).

1845 Maurice in Encycl. Metrop. II. 615/2 To a first cause we necessarily attribute *self Causation.

1950 R. Ames in Science & Society XIV. 195 The obvious need of the oppressed..for *self-censorship of his social ideas.

1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 202 Vnlesse *selfe-charitie be sometimes a vice.

1834 Tracts for Times No. 21 p. 1 In reward for his *self-chastisements.

1835 James Gipsy xix, With the common *self cheatery of fear, she loved not to give her apprehensions voice.

1848 Poe Eureka Wks. 1865 II. 131 The finest quality of Thought is its *self-cognizance.

1583 Lyly in T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 29 Your *selfe commendations. 1779 Johnson L.P., Dryden (1868) 156 His [sc. Dryden's] self-commendations.

1904 K. C. Thurston John Chilcote xi. 119 He had..a feeling of bitter *self-commiseration that for the moment outweighed all other considerations.

1862 G. P. Marsh Eng. Lang. x. 161 A cautious desire of avoiding embarrassing *self-committals.

1605 Shakes. Macb. i. ii. 55 Till that Bellona's Bridegroome..Confronted him with *selfe-comparisons, Point against Point. 1734 Watts Reliq. Juv. (1789) 104 A vain self-comparison with creatures.

1909 W. James Pluralistic Universe i. 36 It may be a supreme reaction of the universe upon itself by which it rises to *self-comprehension. 1935 Mind XLIV. 94 The Delphic Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν..counsels self-knowledge versus his [sc. Nietzsche's] and every Power-Man's need for *self-concealment. 1963 Auden Dyer's Hand 109 A capacity for self-disclosure implies an equal capacity for self-concealment.

1885 W. James Lit. Remains H. James 19 Society is the same Creator, with the nothingness saved, determined to transparency and *self-confession. 1923 F. G. Ellerton Let. 4 Nov. in John Bailey (1935) 236, I take it that the pargoletta passage is of the nature of a self-confession on Dante's part.

1961 New Statesman 23 June 1010/3 ‘Mellowness’ becomes a means of avoiding the self-confrontations he says he has funked all his life.

a 1711 Ken Urania Poet. Wks. IV. 471 She to *Self-conquest me dispos'd.

1862 Lytton Str. Story I. 255 Whenever it schemed or aimed at the animal *self-conservation, which now made its master-impulse.

1883 F. H. Bradley Logic III. i. vi. 450 Synthesis..would not force its parts into violent conjunctions, but, itself in each, by the loss of *self-constraint would embrace its own fulfilment. 1953 D. F. Pocock tr. Durkheim's Sociol. & Philos. ii. 36 The act..cannot be accomplished without effort and self-constraint.

1594 Southwell Marie Magd. Fvnerall T. 80 A submitted soul..the deeper it sinketh in a *self contempt [etc.]. 1842 Tennyson Locksley Hall 96 Perish in thy self-contempt!

1653 H. More Antid. Ath. i. iv. (1712) 15, I conceive the intire Idea of a Spirit..to consist of..Self-penetration, Self-motion, *Self-contraction.

1710 Norris Chr. Prud. v. 238 Repentance is an act of *Self-correction. 1965 Math. in Biol. & Med. (Med. Res. Council) iii. 85 The use of computers in diagnosis will need provision for..*self-correction by new data, and for questioning unusual or missed signs.

1959 E. Pulgram Introd. Spectrogr. Speech 7 Switching from one linguistic code to another is conducive to *self-critique.

1897 W. J. Locke Derelicts ii. xxiii. 413 The tragic futility of such *self-crucifixion.

1858 J. Martineau Stud. Christ. 333 The palsy of will, the incapacity of *self-cure.

a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. II. 86 Themselves must their own *Self-damnation rue.

a 1711 ― Hymns Festiv. ibid. I. 359 Of God offended, the sad Thought Deep *Self-debasement wrought.

1695 Rokeby Mem. 15 Sept. (Surtees) 56 This covenant and *selfe-dedication was..renewed by me. 1943 J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics 67 The desire for self-dedication..should be available to society's common pool.

1957 M. J. Huntingdon in R. K. Merton Student-Physician 181 First-year students..think of each other primarily as students. This is reflected in their *self-definitions. 1980 S. Brett Dead Side of Mike ii. 19 Definition, and particularly self-definition is very important to me as an artist.

1903 ‘Mark Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 510 She..has carried *self-deification to a length which has not before been ventured in ages. 1962 E. Snow Other Side of River xvii. 122 Chiang made a fair start toward self-deification.

1698 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 147 Humility and *self-dejection.

1935 T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral ii. 66 Dominated by the lust of *self-demolition.

1924 W. Holtby Crowded Street xxxv. 260 Don't you think that this *self-deprecation of yours was a little like cowardice? 1977 A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory ix. 307 Suicide represents an extreme on a range of possible forms of self-aggression, which extends from relatively minor forms such as verbal self-deprecation to actual self-destruction.

1827 Hare Guesses Ser. ii. (1873) 503 *Self-depreciation is not humility.

1902 W. James Var. Relig. Exper. xvi. 415 In spite of their repudiation of articulate *self-description, mystical states in general assert a pretty distinct theoretic drift. 1978 J. Dunn in Hookway & Pettit Action & Interpretation 157 Two main difficulties follow from this centrality of the human capacity for self-description in specifying the field of the sciences of man.

1796 F. Burney Camilla V. 454 Thy afflicting, however blamable *self-desertion. 1823 Lamb Elia ii. Stage Illusion, The imbecility, helplessness, and utter self-desertion [of the coward].

1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. xii. 275 Intelligence is a *self-development. 1895 W. J. Locke At Gate of Samaria i. 7 She read books with the eagerness only exhibited by the young girl craving for self-development. 1977 Warren & Ponse in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. x. 285 The Goffmanic masked self..comes into play when the audience is..to be manipulated rather than for such motives as self-development, [etc.].

1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. i. 23 [Hairs] endow'd with a Power..of *self-Dilatation.

1663 Power Exper. Philos. ii. 102 To fill up the aerial interstices (which must needs be considerable in so great a *self-dilation).

1798 R. Watson Addr. People Gt. Brit. 29 The physical strength of the bulk of a nation is irresistible, but it is incapable of *self-direction.

1880 J. Caird Introd. Philos. Relig. ix. 285 We cannot, if we would effect any such..forced *self diremption.

1699 Shaftesbury Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue ii. ii. §1 The more Contradiction and *Self-disapprobation he must incur.

1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. lvi, That *self-disapproval which had been the awakening of a new life within her.

1796 Ld. Glenbervie Diary 15 Oct. (1928) I. 87 Every young person..should be conducted to form himself to such habits of *self-discipline. 1838 Pusey Let. to B. Harrison 13 Aug., His careful self-discipline is..calculated in this self-indulgent age to do much immediate good. 1946 Nature 27 July 113/1 The man who pursues truth for its own sake and studies science in an impersonal way, with rigorous self-discipline, is really showing his belief in a religion and is taking up a religious attitude.

1866 J. Martineau Ess. I. 191 Here you deny the power of *self-disclosure.

1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. i. §1 Called Picti, from their *self-discoloration.

1965 J. A. Michener Source 532 The Arabs arrived when they were strongest, in the throbbing flush of *self-discovery and unification.

1709 Shaftesbury Charac., Freed. Wit iv. §1 An alternate Disquiet and *Self-dislike.

1795–1814 Wordsw. Excurs. iv. 475 Inward *self-disparagement.

1744 Birch Life of Boyle 41 Nothing but the forbiddenness of *self-dispatch hindered his acting it.

1838 J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. Apr. 7 M. de Vigny,..a man..of a rare simplicity of heart, and freedom from egotism and *self-display. 1885 Manch. Exam. 12 Jan. 6/2 Self-bedizenment is one of the forms of self-display.

1652 J. Wright tr. Camus' Nat. Paradox iv. 195 Beeing in full capacity of Understanding and *Self-disposall. a 1885 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 78 One part, Reason, selfdisposal, choice of better or worse way, Is corpse now, cannot change.

1795–1814 Wordsw. Excurs. iv. 475 There is a luxury in *self-dispraise.

1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. 209 What more potent principe of *self-dissolution is there than Division?

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia v. (1622) 449 Till it..runne it selfe vpon the rockes of *selfe-diuision. 1857 Gosse Omphalos vii. 177 The whole of this immense structure [a tree] originated in a single cell, which, by repeated acts of self-division..has gradually built up the mass.

1933 Week-end Rev. 11 Feb. 151/1 Like Hamlet, he had an incurable habit of *self-dramatization. 1959 Encounter July 66/2 It was not so much insincerity as self-dramatisation.

1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. xii. 268 A perpetual *self-duplication of one and the same power into object and subject. 1953 J. S. Huxley Evol. in Action i. 16 They [sc. the chromosomes] have divided longitudinally after self-duplication.

1831 J. S. Mill Let. 22 Oct. (1910) I. 8 The only thing which I can usefully do at present,..is to work out..principles of morals, government, law, education, above all *self-education. 1846 Lytton Lucretia ii. i, He [sc. a poet] must employ his intellect, and his self-education must be large and comprehensive.

1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. ii. xvii. 435 The Impious *Self-elation of the Bishop of Rome. 1844 W. H. Mill Serm. Tempt. Christ v. 133 The grounds of self-elation..were..the revelations with which he had been favoured by God.

1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. viii. (1853) 60 He must have been a great stranger indeed to the Business of *Self-Employment. 1976 Times 13 Aug. 13/7 In the poorest parts of the country..self-employment is frequently the only manner in which a living income can be put together.

1649 Milton Eikon. xv. 144 His *self Encomiums.

1699 Shaftesbury Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue ii. i. ad fin., To have the chief Means and Power of *Self-Enjoyment. 1870 D. G. Rossetti Let. 7 Nov. (1965) II. 914 That sense of the poet's self-enjoyment which is indispensable to the enjoyment of the reader. 1960 H. Read Forms of Things Unknown iii. ix. 149 No explanation of art as ‘objectified self-enjoyment’..can account for the facts of art history.

1920 B. Russell Pract. & Theory Bolshevism ii. i. 127 *Self-enrichment seemed the natural aim of a man's political actions.

1710 Shaftesbury Advice to Author i. § 2 Neither Lover, Author, Mystick, or Conjuror,..can..be intitl'd to a Share in this *Self-entertainment.

1683 J. Corbet Free Actions ii. 19 And that the Power in Man is not brought into act, it is for want of *Self-excitation.

1884 Leeds Merc. 30 Apr. 4/6 Her *self-exclusion from that great movement.

1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxvii, All screening *self-excuse..forsook him.

1939 A. Huxley After Many a Summer i. ii. 24 Jeremy made his mannequin's gesture of apologetic *self-exhibition.

1939 Mind. XLVIII. 238 He sees that the root motive of mysticism is *self-expansion—though he does not use this expression.

1839 De Quincey Wordsworth Wks. 1862 II. 182 Read..of the *self-expatriation..as a measure of despair on the part of myriads.

1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. iv. 8 A thing perplex'd Beyond *selfe-explication.

1742 Young Nt. Th. vii. 152 Why beats thy bosom with illustrious dreams Of *self-exposure, laudable, and great? 1921 D. H. Lawrence Tortoises 40 Doomed to partiality,..Want, Self-exposure, hard humiliation, need to add himself on to her. 1979 J. Rathbone Euro-Killers ii. 22 Neither man was prepared to risk possible self-exposure by offering his ideas.

1892 Nation 7 Apr. 263/2 This doctrine of unbounded self-indulgence—or, as his [Walt Whitman's] admirers would prefer to call it, *self-expression.

1846 Lytton Lucretia ii. xiv, He had to listen..to her haughty *self-felicitations.

a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. Brothers of Birchington x, Oh, such a knout!! For his *self-flagellations.

1624 Wotton Archit. ii. 82 Every Mans proper Mansion House and Home, being..the Seate of *Selfe fruition.

1936 Mind XLV. 242 He affirms the awareness of God to be ‘rooted in’ the human interest of *self-fulfilment. 1981 R. Barnard Sheer Torture x. 109 Cultivating your ego, aiming at total self-fulfilment, doing your own thing.

1950 Essays & Studies III. 37 Everything in his poetry goes to suggest that it was created..by a largely spontaneous..process of *self-generation.

1677 Gilpin Dæmonol. iii. xx. 169 It may..be..for themselves that they work, in a *self-gratification of their natural Zeal for their way. 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geogr. Soc. XXIX. 330 His egotism renders him parsimonious even in self gratification.

1634 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. xxxix, A *selfe-humiliation. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair l, That timorous debasement and self-humiliation of a woman.

1817 Lady Morgan France iii. (1818) I. 308 The ready *self-immolation of Madame La Valette. 1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 74 The suttee, or self-immolation of widows upon the funeral pile. 1898 G. B. Shaw Perfect Wagnerite 95 Her self immolation on the pyre. 1961 D. G. James Matthew Arnold iii. 57 The omission of it [sc. Empedocles] from the 1853 volume..was a fine piece of self-immolation.

1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vii. (1853) 100 Creation itself is sacrifice—the *self-impartation of the divine Being.

1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 411/2 The process of copulation..does more than stimulate each individual to *self-impregnation.

1911 U.S. Reports (U.S. Supreme Court) CCXXI. 388 The clear and simple directness of the privilege against *self-incrimination. 1977 ‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xv. 267 You are warned of your right to counsel and your privilege against self-incrimination.

a 1711 Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. I. 462 Honours in him no *Self-inflations raise. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Self-inflation, a method of rendering one's self buoyant in water when in danger of drowning.

1948 Commentary Nov. 417/2 Intelligence, humor, and charm is often humiliatingly exploited..as entertainment and *self-ingratiation. 1963 Times 9 Feb. 4/2 The pallid self-ingratiation of Sally Logan's performance.

1699 Shaftesbury Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue ii. ii. §1 Nor are the greatest Favourites of Fortune exempted from this Task of *Self-Inspection.

a 1854 J. S. Mill Draft Autobiogr. (1961) 122 Let..your scrutiny, your *self interrogation exhaust themselves on that. 1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. vii. 195 That palpitating *self-interrogation.

1873 Hamerton Intell. Life ii. i. 44 That the reading of poetry..was clearly *self-intoxication.

1818 Scott Br. Lamm. x, I am obliged to you..for breaking the ice at once, where circumstances..rendered *self-introduction peculiarly awkward.

1754 Richardson Grandison VI. 68 We then endeavoured to recollect the words of his *self-invitation hither. 1805 Jane Austen Let. 24 Aug. (1952) 162, I defy her to accept this self-invitation of mine, unless it be really what perfectly suits her.

1963 English Studies XLIV. 144 Here, however, he will not allow himself to feel the *self-laceration in the final stanzas of that canto.

1853 C. Brontë Let. in Gaskell Life (1857) II. 287 No charge of *self-laudation can touch her.

1977 Jrnl. Protozool. XXIV. 9/2 Pattern formation by *self-linkage.

1656 Owen Mortif. Sin xiv. (1668) 170 The rigidest Means of *self-maceration.

a 1866 J. Grote Exam. Utilitarian Philos. (1870) vi. 116 Good *self-management his highest aim. 1977 Warren & Ponse in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. x. 277 There is a difference in degree between the problems and self-management of gays and most other people.

1949 M. Mead Male & Female x. 216 The female child's genitals are less exposed..to *self-manipulation. 1964 E. H. Mizruchi in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 257 Mental self-manipulation appears to be characteristic of the assembly-line work process.

a 1680 Butler Char., Obstinate Man (1908) 177 He will rather suffer *Self-Martyrdom than part with the least Scruple of his Freehold.

1954 Koestler Invisible Writing iii. 40 Amiable Hans was a bald, moon-faced little man with a wealth of humour and *self-mockery.

1823 Bentham Not Paul but Jesus 287 Terror and *self-mortification. 1931 J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? v. 169 He [sc. the humanist] finds the desire for a sacrifice and self-mortification just as natural..as the desire for achievement and self-assertion.

1864 G. O. Trevelyan Compet. Wallah 380 What is there in common between the faith of Heber and Swartz and a creed which enjoins suicide and *self-mutilation. 1980 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 137/2 It represents self-mutilation, it can only lead to genocide and biocide.

1628 Feltham Resolves ii. xxxvii. 113 The vilenesse of a wilfull *selfe-neglect. 1876 C. M. Yonge Womankind xv, The hopeless dejection of self-neglect.

1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Mar. 174/1 His book is one long and infinitely various act of self-discovery, *self-objectification, made possible only by self-forgetfulness. 1969 T. F. Torrance Theol. Sci. i. 42 We are frequently engaged in mythological self-objectifications of this sort.

1898 G. B. Shaw Perfect Wagnerite 11 The..*self-organization of life. 1967 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. V. 274 Ecological succession is a process of self-organization.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. xl. (1674) 54 Vain-glorious pomp, and *self-ostentation.

1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. App. 327 The poignancy of the satire, and artfulness of *self-panegyric.

1958 S. Spender Engaged in Writing 89 He [spoke]..in the comic manner which was half-serious *self-parody. 1978 New York 3 Apr. 64/3 The majesty of our landscape has its own built-in note of self-parody, and it has eluded these artists.

1682 H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 217 They demonstrate still their Spirituality by *Self-Penetration, haply a thousand and a thousand times repeated.

1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. 160 If the souls of Men and Animals be at any time without Consciousness and *Self-perception, then..Clear and Express Consciousness is not Essential to Life. 1972 M. Argyle Social Psychol. of Work iv. 60 The self-image also includes self-perceptions such as being ‘intelligent’ or ‘lively’.

1850 L. Hunt Autobiogr. II. xii. 98 The strange *self-permission of a man like Walter Scott..to countenance the border-like forages of his friends.

1843 J. S. Mill Logic II. iii. xv. 32 A permanent effect..possessing the property of *self-perpetuation. 1906 W. G. Sumner Folkways 473 They show how deep is the interest of human beings in the sex taboo, and in the self-perpetuation of society. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics vi. 247 We think of life as a system or aggregate of chemical reactions that possess the inherent capability of self-perpetuation.

1704 Steele Lying Lover v. i, We may feel Comfort by our *Self-persuasion.

1914 G. B. Shaw Dark Lady of Sonnets 121 Self-betrayal is one thing; and *self-portrayal, as in Hamlet and Mercutio, is another.

1890 Spectator 3 May 614/1 Fortitude, endurance, *self-postponement.

1803 T. Scott Funeral Serm. iii. Wks. 1807 III. 111 Was he not tempted to *self-preference, and to trust in his own righteousness?

1868 Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 140 This bridge between *self-preparation and the university course.

1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such i. 8 This naive veracity of *self-presentation. 1901 Gore Body of Christ iv. 219 The heavenly intercession and self-presentation of Christ.

1880 Sanday in Expositor XI. 353 A certain *self-projection of the commentator into a different order of ideas.

1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. III. li. 354 The divine tribunal had changed its aspect for him; *self-prostration was no longer enough.

1834 J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VIII. 838 This is..the best sort of *self-protection. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. V. 101 In self-protection he had been obliged to arm his household.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 194 The *selfe-punishment for others fault. 1798 W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) II. 67 Son! by self-punishment thy guilt atone. 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 14 My own generalizations and predictions..sometimes provide an exercise in self-punishment since some of them read very foolishly today.

1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. x. 202 A longing for *self-purification.

1902 Class. Rev. XVI. 148/1 These are examples of coincident language, not of *self-quotation.

1871 Geo. Eliot Middlem. I. iii. 41 Dorothea checked herself suddenly with *self-rebuke for the presumptuous way in which she was reckoning on uncertain events. 1927 T. Wilder Bridge of San Luis Rey ii. 15 Each..was on the point of losing her mind under the alternations of self-rebuke and the outbursts of passion.

1955 Essays & Studies VIII. 75 Emma is shown as incapable of *self-recognition.

1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 101 The time had come for inwardness and *self-reconstruction.

1961 Webster, *Self-recrimination. 1965 J. A. Michener Source 700 He was thrown into a world of self-recrimination and remorse.

1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. ii. xxxiii, One spirit goes Through all this bulk, not by extension But by a totall *self-reduplication.

1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter 271 In *self-reformation the vicious become wretched by their abstentions.

1918 W. S. Churchill in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. i. 366 They should by..a real act of *self-regeneration make a definite break with the system. 1962 E. Snow Red China Today (1963) xlviii. 373 In prison there is the omnipresent threat of force and humilitation, combined with the demand for self-regeneration.

1959 B. & R. North tr. Duverger's Pol. Parties i. ii. 87 One of the constant features of the French Communist party is its perpetual *self-renewal. 1971 J. Z. Young Introd. Study Man xi. 147 They [sc. ‘post-mitotic’ cells] are provided with especially active mechanisms for self-renewal.

1848 Poe in Graham's Mag. Feb. 131/1 Apparent plagiarisms..arise from an author's *self-repetition.

1959 New Biol. XXVIII. 93 The most characteristic property [of life], that of *self-replication, has been studied theoretically by certain mathematicians.

1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter 5 In judging of men, acts form an incomparably higher standard than *self-representation.

1926 J. S. Huxley Essays of Biologist vii. 256 The attributes of living matter which mark it off from inorganic matter become dominant—its capacity for *self-reproduction, [etc.]. 1964 Sci. Amer. Sept. 154/2 Seen in this light, crystal growth is self-reproduction.

1676 Owen Serm. Wks. 1851 IX. 379 *Self-reputation in the exercise of gifts.

1668 ― Expos. 130th Ps. iv. 120 Unspeakable are the Advantages which a soul obtains by this *self Resignation.

1824 Jas. Nichols Calvinism & Armin. i. 376 note, The British Constitution..contained within itself copious materials for *self-restoration.

1842 Manning Serm. xii. (1848) I. 169 In all these acts of *self-restriction.

1898 Month Sept. 237 To learn independence and *self-rule. 1900 G. B. Shaw Let. 14 Mar. (1972) II. 156 The definite intention to clear out of India as soon as the natives are capable of self rule is the most pious of superfluities. 1978 Times 5 May 6/8 There is apprehension..that Israel will impose its own peace plan which offers a measure of self-rule for the West Bank.

a 1711 Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. I. 464 Frequent *self-scrutinies the Humble makes. 1865 D. G. Rossetti Let. 21 Nov. (1965) II. 581 This [feeling of rage]..leads not to envy in the least, but to self-scrutiny. 1979 Dædalus Summer 3 Genuine charity and a constant and severe self-scrutiny are psychologically unthinkable without the moral pride that is all but inseparable from spiritual energy.

1840 Dickens Master Humphrey's Clock I. 47, I..have no power of *self-snatchation (forgive me if I coin that phrase) from the yawning gulf before me.

1947 C. Gray Contingencies 37 The voluntary *self-starvation of the rich.

1904 W. James in Mind XIII. 466 Can there be *self-stultification in urging any account whatever of truth? Can the definition ever contradict the deed?

1855 Dickens Dorrit ii. xxvii, Patience, self-denial, *self-subdual.

1863 Kavanagh Q. Mab. iii. vi, They prefer self-indulgence to *self-subjection.

1853 Grote Greece ii. lxxxvii. XI. 387 Spartan *self-suppression and rigour of life.

1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. xliv, When she doth with *self-sway Thus change herself.

1841 Merivale Lect. Coloniz. & Col. I. iv. 101 A right to self-government and *self-taxation.

1959 Spectator 11 Sept. 336/3 He came to each [session] with notes on the successive steps in his ‘*self-therapy’.

1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 31 The hideous practices of *self-torture.

1949 Koestler Promise & Fulfilment ii. iv. 253 This difference..was demonstrated by Irgun's..*self-transformation into a bona fide democratic party.

1640 T. H[ooker] title, The Christians two chiefe lessons; viz. Selfe-deniall, and *Selfe-tryall.

1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 33 Cultivation and refinement, apparently acquired by *self-tuition.

1709 Shaftesbury Charac., Moralists iii. §2 *Self-valuation supposes Self-Worth. 1946 P. Bottome Lifeline xxxix. 297 Their self-valuation was threatened.

1854 Milman Lat. Christ. iii. v. (1864) II. 13 *Self vendition into slavery.

1854 Geo. Eliot tr. Feuerbach's Essence Christianity i. 6 Consciousness is *self-verification. 1975 T. P. Whitney tr. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago II. iii. i. 11 Prisoners, wherever possible, were to be brought into self-verification and self-supervision.

1654 Whitlock Zootomia 28 *Selfe-vexations..may by no way better be blowne over, then by reckoning Impossibles not to concerne our Desires.

1690 C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test. I. 314 Jacobs silence..was far better than his son's *self-vindication.

1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. x, That primeval Superstition, *Self-worship.

  b. With vbl. ns.; as self-abominating = self-abomination.

1829 J. Macdonald in Tweedie Life (1849) 131 On the very back of this *self-abominating, I rear another monument of self-exaltation.

1762 Goldsmith Life of Richard Nash 13 Little Things..without merit..by *self-advertizing, attract the attention of the day. 1909 Bank Myst. F. Farrington 280 Contain yourself in the matter of self-advertising.

1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 571 Humiliations and *self-afflictings.

1840 Carlyle Heroes iv. 215 No sophistry, *self-blinding or other dishonesty.

1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. lxiii, *Self-checking and suppression.

1702 Howe Self-ded. 16 Our dedicating our selves, to God, is a *self-committing.

1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. vi. 158 *Self-compounding of mental facts is inadmissible.

1649 Roberts Clavis Bibl. 367 Without carkings, covetousnesse, or other *self-disquietings.

1817 Jane Austen Sanditon v, in Minor Wks. (1954) 388, I can be no Judge of what the habit of *self-doctoring may do. 1951 C. R. Acton Dog Annual 143 The all-important power of..self-doctoring.

1754 Richardson Grandison VI. 115 She embraced me,..and cleared up all my *self-doubtings.

1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 992/2 A *self-emptying of himself, and the assumption of human nature.

1842 Manning Serm. iii. (1848) I. 44 Nothing so wears down the sharpness of conscience..as *self-excusing.

1720 T. Boston Hum. Nat. Fourfold St. (1784) 88 *Self-jealousing well becomes Christians.

1758 S. Hayward Serm. 53 To keep us ever humble, and to fill us with *self-loathing. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 366 Perversion of self-feeling may culminate in self-loathing or hatred. 1971 P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin ix. 176 She..was filled with self-loathing because it was she who had trapped him.

1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 75 Selfe-loue..is not so vile a sinne, As *selfe-neglecting.

1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vii. (1853) 101 That one offering..repeated in the life and *self-offering of all.

1902 Westm. Gaz. 11 Apr. 10/1 The habit of *self physicking, often with powerful drugs, is on the increase.

1907 W. James in McClure's Mag. (1908) Feb. 420/2 Democracy as a whole may undergo *self-poisoning. 1968 Times 28 Oct. 3/1 Professor Kessel..has found that 34 per cent of 511 patients admitted for self-poisoning gave warning.

1960 Times 13 May 18/5 Unless some *self-policing is done in the American film industry. 1977 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXV. 450/1 Self-policing by the data storage industry is simply not an adequate safeguard.

1649 Lightfoot Battle with Wasp's Nest Wks. 1825 I. 421 Pride, blind zeal, and *self-prizing.

1856 Bagehot in National Rev. Apr. 370 He has no passionate *self-questionings, no indomitable fears, no asking perplexities. 1862 Lytton Str. Story II. 199 My self-questionings halted here.

1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 96/2 He was under a continuous course of *self-schooling.

1825 Halkett Hist. Notes Indians N. Amer. xvi. 376 The..*self-scourgings publicly exhibited by the Indian Pigarouick in the church of Montreal. 1916 G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion p. xx, Saints amazed the world with their austerities and self-scourgings.

1681 Owen Humble Test. 139 This *Self-Searching is the first Duty we are..called unto. 1978 J. Sacks in P. Moore Man, Woman, & Priesthood iii. 28 It has led to considerable self-searching in the Jewish community in recent years.

1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xi. 8 Howsoeuer the vngodly beguyle themselues with their *selfesoothing.

1891 *Self-teaching [see nursery school s.v. nursery 8 c]. 1967 G. Jackson Let. 31 Jan. in Soledad Brother (1971) 107 A good self-teaching book on Arabic.

1868 Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 250 Good management may postpone the ‘*self-thinning’, by the inside, shaded, and weak bottom branches dying out.

1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 129 Life's incessant aspiration to higher organization, wider, deeper, intenser, self-consciousness, and clearer *self-understanding. 1977 A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory i. 57 In the philosophy of science, as contrasted to the methodological self-understanding of the social sciences, the ‘orthodox model’ has long since become subject to broad-ranging attack.

1882 Rossetti Poems (1904) 262/1 Lord, undo Our *self-undoing.

1902 J. Smith Integr. Script. i. 9 The *self-unveiling of God.

a 1700 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. III. 105 He *self-upbraidings felt his Spirit gore. 1840 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 124 Overcome by her tears and promises and self-upbraidings.

1671–2 R. Wild Let. 14 The..*self-whippings of the Popish Priests.

  c. With agent-nouns; as self-advertiser, one who advertises himself, one given to self-advertisement.

1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Aug. 1/3 These safeguards..would make it rather more difficult for the *self-advertiser and the bore to inflict themselves upon the House.

1654 Whitlock Zootomia 296 Aquinas dareth do it to the proudest Mihi plaudo, *Selfe-approver of them all.

1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 270/2 The Samokreshchennikee, or ‘*self-baptisers’,..baptise themselves by repeatedly diving into a river.

1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 890 In Greek ἀυτοπάτορες, or *Self-begetters.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. 16 Who (*self-commanders) rather sin suppresse By self-examples then by rigorousnesse.

1758 Johnson Idler No. 88 ¶8 If I had ever found any of the *self-contemners much irritated..by the consciousness of their meanness.

1672 Baxter Bagshaw's Scandals ii. 16 What a forgetful *self-contradicter is this man?

1818 Byron Juan i. xv, An all-in-all sufficient *self-director.

1936 A. Thirkell August Folly viii. 247 ‘She is a *self-dramatiser,’ said Charles.

1948 Medium ævum XVII. 1 (title) A medieval *self-educator. 1970 P. Dickinson Seals ii. 35 Great self-educators, these Pibbles.

a 1793 J. Hunter in Catal. Mus. Coll. Surg. (1833) I. 259 It is most probable that all Barnacles are of both sexes, and *self-impregnators.

1657 J. Watts Scribe, Pharisee, etc. i. 118 To take you off..from being a self-ordainer, or a *self-intruder.

1699 Shaftesbury Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue ii. §2 Such a one is in reality a *Self-Oppressor, and lies heavier on himself than he can ever do on Mankind.

1840 Disraeli Misc. Lit. 45/2 The letters of..Gray, Cowper, and Walpole.., *self-painters.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. 451 A blade Wherewith vain Man and his inveigled Wife (*Self-parricides) have reft their proper life.

1780 F. Burney Diary May, A *self-piquer upon immense good breeding.

1894 S. Weyman Man in Black x, The *self-poisoner had done his work well.

1668 Dryden Dram. Poesy Ess. (ed. Ker) I. 48 [Terence's] Heautontimorumenos, or *Self-Punisher.

1966 ‘J. Berrisford’ Wild Garden viii. 99 One of the most..accommodating *self-seeders is a biennial evening primrose—Oenothera lamarckiana.

1742 Young Nt. Th. v. 711 Man is a *self-survivor ev'ry year.

1899 Dublin Rev. Apr. 250 When he..becomes not a *self-teacher but a disciple.

1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta xxiii, If I could only turn *self-vivisector, and watch the operation of my heart.

1729 C. Middleton Let. fr. Rome 51 That..Penance of the Flagellantes or *Self-whippers.

1819 Keats Fall of Hyperion i. 207 Large *self worshipers.

  d. With nouns of state or condition; as self-awareness, the condition of being aware of oneself, self-mastery, mastery of oneself, self-command.
  Some of the combinations illustrated under this head and the next might with equal propriety have been referred to 3; they are placed here because the relation of self- to the second element may be conveniently defined as objective.

1880 Cyples Human Exp. ii. 34 The egoistic consciousness—that is, our *self-awareness.

1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §23 (1716) 24 *Self-credulity, pride, and levity lead unto self-Idolatry.

1671 Howe Let. in Life (1836) 185 A mean and inglorious *self-despiciency.

1921 E. M. Hull Sheik v. 160 A *self-disgust seized him. He had been within an ace of betraying the man. 1977 Listener 28 Apr. 552/4 George Grosz..the master of self-disgust.

1853 J. Brown Let. (1912) 132 Dr. Scott's illness and death, and my own profound *self-disrespect and indifferent health and overwork,—altogether I was in a sorry condition. 1938 Ld. Lymington Famine in Eng. 74 They are waiting to be led to salvation, and out of the slough of self-disrespect into which they have been driven.

1885 Athenæum 26 Dec. 832 The duty of *self-dominance.

1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre ii, My habitual mood of humiliation, *self-doubt. 1930 E. Waugh Vile Bodies vi. 106 Magically, self-doubt began to spread in the audience. 1980 J. McClure Blood of Englishman xv. 142 His hunch..drifted dangerously towards the jagged reef of self-doubt.

1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. 41 Pressing men to spiritual povertie, *self emtinesse.

1734 Watts Reliq. Juv. (1789) 121 By the influence of the same native principle of flattery and *self-fondness.

1927 J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation iv. 130 ‘My country, right or wrong’..words which are immortal as the fittest inscription on the pedestal of the golden calf of *self-hero-worship.

1948 L. Spitzer Linguistics & Lit. Hist. iv. 156 An enthusiasm inspired by *self-infatuation. 1973 M. Amis Rachel Papers 16 Thinking back, actually, ‘self-infatuation’ strikes me as a rather ill-chosen word. It isn't so much that I like or love myself. Rather, I'm sentimental about myself.

1673 J. Flavel Saint Indeed 12 Quick-sighted *self-jealousie is an excellent preservative from sin.

a 1860 Bayne (Worc.), A sustained *self-mastery. 1933 Burlington Mag. Dec. 260/1 The art of self-mastery, the grand style. 1979 Dædalus Summer 90 One must be..forever inaccessible to the seductions that distract or subtract from the forces necessary for self-mastery and self-defense.

? 1809 Wordsw. Poems to Nat. Indep. ii. xvii, Happy occasions oft by *self-mistrust Are forfeited. 1946 Dylan Thomas Let. 30 May (1966) 288 Inevitable moments of depression and self-mistrust.

1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. A 6 We came into the world, and we know not how; we live in't in a *self-nescience.

1868 Lowell Among my Bks., Dryden (1870) 40 He had more of that good luck of *self-oblivion than most men.

1842 in H. W. S[mith] Secret of Happy Life vii. (1886) 79 A relinquishment of the principle of *self-ownership.

1668 H. More Div. Dial. i. xxx. I. 129 The last Attribute..that of *Self-penetrability.

1977 R. Holland Self & Social Context i. 20 From Freud they need clinical methods which give such primacy to the individual case but they dislike the ‘pathological’ *self-picture.

1809 R. Hall Wk. Holy Spirit (1813) 21 That *self-recollection and composure, which are so essential to devotion.

1832 *Selfreverence [see self-control 1].

1647 J. Hall Poems ii. 104. 5 Lest from my selfe my owne *selfe-ruine bee.

1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. i. (1853) 6 With what..Care we are to..examine ourselves..in order to acquire this important *Self-Science.

1861 E. B. Browning Mother & Poet in Last Poems (1862) 95 Some women bear children in strength, And bite back the cry of their pain in *self-scorn.

1804 Wordsw. Small Celandine 8 In close *self-shelter, like a Thing at rest.

c 1645 Howell Lett. ii. li. (1650) II. 66 Hee is too much given to his study and *self-society.

1646 Fuller Wounded Consc. ix. 67 *Selfe-suspition of hypocrisie, is a hopefull symptome of sincerity.

1964 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) vii. 74 An animal will not normally form antibodies to its own tissues, even though these may be powerfully antigenic to a litter-mate. The mechanism of this *self-tolerance and the consequences of its breakdown are discussed later. 1977 I. M. Roitt Essent. Immunol. iv. 109 Although we are uncertain of the mechanism, the idea that deletion of specific clones is responsible for tolerance induction is attractive. For example, it can account for the development of self-tolerance.

1807 Jebb Let. to Knox 20 Aug., Encouragement is held out, to prayer, and to *self-watchfulness.

1748 W. Melmoth Fitzosborne Lett. lxxi. (1749) II. 210 *Self-weariness is a circumstance that ever attends folly.

  e. With adjs.; as self-adaptive, capable of adapting oneself or itself, (hence, by extension) pertaining to, involving, or characterized by self-adaptation, self-fond, fond of oneself.

1903 F. W. H. Myers Human Pers. I. 216 Typical of life is its *self-adaptive power.

1864 Pusey Lect. Daniel viii. 550 Earnest *self-afflictive prayer.

1943 H. Read Educ. through Art iii. 42 It may be that such eidetic individuals are more *self-analytical than an eidetic person without creative gifts would be.

1924 R. Graves Mock Beggar Hall 28 Alert, with both eyes open, *self-aware. 1979 A. Chisholm Nancy Cunard viii. 75 An intelligent, imaginative, self-aware young man.

1698 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 180 God, who is such a Good, Bountiful, *Self-communicative, Self-diffusive, Universalized Being.

1909 Webster, *Self-corrective. 1934 Mind XLIII. 506 The inductive method is self-corrective.

a 1812 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. (1827) III. v. xv. 224 We must..express the distinction between the two opposite kinds of evidentiary chains: styling the one, for example, the self-infirmative chain, we may style the other the *self-corroborative. 1909 W. James Meaning of Truth xiii. 267 The hypothesis will, in short, have worked successfully all round the circle and proved self-corroborative.

1936 Mind XLV. 98 This suggestion that art, like religion, is self-critical in its activity. 1979 B. Malamud Dubin's Lives ix. 346 The tone of the book was self-critical.

1867 J. R. Lowell Fitz Adam's Story in Poems (1912) 575 He went on with a self-derisive sneer. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Woman who rode Away 172 His rather hooked nose self-derisive.

1698 *Self-diffusive [see self-communicative above].

1884 Howells Silas Lapham (1891) I. 267 A *self-disdainful air.

1934 Essays & Studies XIX. 28 The most seemingly *self-expressive ‘human document’. 1977 R. Holland Self & Social Context v. 102 He must develop an autonomous aspect of self to account for the more self-expressive or impulsive actions.

a 1797 Walpole Geo. II (1847) I. 222 The *self-fondest and greatest of poets.

1845 R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. x. (ed. 2) 271 All popular opinion and information, which is wholesome and enduring, is *self-generative.

1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. i. (1853) 7 Condemning others for the very crimes we ourselves are guilty of, which a *self-ignorant Man is very apt to do.

1949 Koestler Promise & Fulfilment i. xiii. 149 [He]..refused to testify..on the grounds that his testimony would be *self-incriminatory.

a 1812 *Self-infirmative [see self-corroborative above]. 1875 A. Swinbourne Picture Logic (ed. 2) xxii. 142 Self-infirmative inference is where each fresh fact weakens the conclusion.

a 1711 Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. I. 326 We from our proneness to backslide, *Self-jealous, shou'd in Thee confide.

a 1863 Whately Comm.-pl. Bk. (1864) 173 [A party] that assumes some *self-laudatory title.

1897 G. B. Shaw Let. 10 Aug. (1965) I. 795 It is sheer want of practice that makes actors *self-mistrustful when they are asked to..tell a story on the stage.

1699 Shaftesbury Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue i. §3 If a Creature be *self-neglectful, and insensible of Danger.

1816 Shelley Daemon i. 89 *Self-oblivious solitude.

1889 Mivart Orig. Hum. Reason 45 Ideas are abstract, reflective and *self-perceptive.

1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps i. §8. 17 There is no need to offend by importunate, *self-proclaimant splendour.

1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xxiii. 381 The tendency to contract is the source of all the *self-protective impulses and reactions which are later developed. 1979 B. Malamud Dubin's Lives ix. 337 Some people complicate their feelings in self-protective ways.

1852 Bailey Festus 407 Its self consuming fate, *self-punitive.

1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 846 A..*Self Recollective Power.

1943 J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics v. 34 The capacity for self-reproduction, or better *self-reproductive evolution.

1847 Tennyson Princess vii. 274 *Self-reverent each and reverencing each.

a 1914 Joyce Stephen Hero (1944) xvi. 36 Stephen, as he looked contemptuously at the laughing faces, thought of a *self-submersive reptile.

1888 R. F. Horton Inspir. Bible vi. 153 The author is entirely *self-suppressive.

1918 G. Frankau One of Them in Poet. Works (1923) II. 75 Goddess indeed! A *self-sure, jade-eyed, slim puss, of life's each latest luxury impassioned. 1954 Numbers (N.Z.) July 1/5 Paul was lying on his bed, reading. Twenty-five; good-looker; self-sure.

1668 J. Corbet 2nd Disc. Relig. Eng. 16 Modestly..*self-suspicious.

1884 Tennyson Becket v. ii, We are *self-uncertain creatures.

1903 Speaker 6 June 232/2 Nothing exists..to keep together a body of weary and *self-weary men.

  f. With ppl. adjs. in -ing ; as self-abandoning, abandoning oneself, (hence, by extension) pertaining to, involving, or characterized by self-abandonment. (For the extended meaning cf. sense 2 note, below.)

1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxvii, The wo-begone and *self-abandoning note in which he uttered the disconsolate words.

1922 Joyce Ulysses 718 The selfprolonging tension of the thing proposed to be done and the *selfabbreviating relaxation of the thing done.

1836 Keble Lyra Apost. (1849) 57 When the *self-abhorring thrill Is past.

1864 Pusey Lect. Daniel ii. 65 The then most stirring and *self-adapting people.

1848 J. S. Mill Pol. Econ. II. iii. xx. 154 There is a *self-adjusting power in the variations of the exchange itself. 1894 Pop. Sci. Monthly June 184 Nature is..more self-adjusting than his system contemplates.

1900 Daily News 15 Nov. 4/7 An advertising and..a *self-advertising age.

1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. iii. i. F j b, Euery proud and *selfe-affecting Dame.

1856 Grote Greece ii. xcii. XII. 118 His own *self-aggrandising impulse.

1922 W. B. Yeats Trembling of Veil iii. 144 The subtle torture of *self-analysing passion. 1980 A. Wilson Setting World on Fire iii. i. 264 Find a play..which has a thoughtful, self-analysing part for an old actor like me.

1734 Pope Ess. Man iv. 255 One *self-approving hour whole years out-weighs Of stupid starers. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. iii, A self-approving smile.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. 123 Their new *Self-arching arms in thousand Arbours grew.

1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. ii. i. (1714) 40 note, Therein gravity doth so far over-power their *self-attracting Power.

1935 H. H. Farmer World & God i. ix. 158 Our interest is in the Christian experience of God as personal, which in the nature of the case must be *self-authenticating. 1976 H. Montefiore in Christian Believing 151 His character is to me self-authenticating.

1698 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 34 Love is so *self-betraying a Passion.

1907 A. French Bk. Vegetables 78 Varieties [of celery] are many, and classify chiefly as to height, color (red tint), and ‘*self-blanching’ properties. 1976 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Nanny Bird xi. 138 Simon had turned the colour of self-blanching celery.

a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. II. 3 In thy own *Self-comprehending Thought.

1647 C. Harvey Schola Cordis xxxi. 12 Or doth thy *self-confounding fancy feare thee, When there's no danger neare thee?

1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. (1907) II. 229 A *self-consoling grin.

1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. xi. 1 Fowle Gealosie, that..mak'st the louing hart..feed it selfe with *selfe-consuming smart?

1655–87 H. More App. Antid. (1712) 185 How it comes to pass that the Soul cannot withdraw her self from pain by her *Self-contracting faculty.

1944 Mind LIII. 212 The last topic with which Hr. von Wright deals is Reichenbach's contention that induction is a *self-correcting process. 1979 Dædalus Summer 150 The idea of a developing and self-correcting body of scientific inquirers offered what seemed to him a more satisfactory model.

1650 Baxter Saint's R. iii. v. §4 (1651) 92 Those *self-couzening, formal, lazie Professors of Religion.

1909 W. M. Urban Valuation xiv. 413 In this concept of the *self-defeating process we have a negative test of validity. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female ix. 196 The Weimar Republic's self-defeating practice of giving..jobs..to older men. 1979 B. Malamud Dubin's Lives ix. 336 Their talk was self-defeating.

1968 *Self-defining [see literal n. 3].

1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 42 The *self-deifying tendency.

1908 W. B. Yeats Poetry & Ireland 10 None other has a continual deliberate *self-delighting happiness.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Jan. 30/1 Mr Amis, seen by himself in a way in which ironical, *self-deprecating people do see themselves. 1971 S. Hill Strange Meeting ii. 111 Barton turned his head and smiled, and then his face changed again, the old, self-deprecating expression over it.

1864 Bagehot in National Rev. Nov. 34 Such *self-describing poets describe what is in them, but not peculiar to them. 1978 J. Dunn in Hookway & Pettit Action & Interpretation 156 Between a describer and a self-describing object there exist relations which are peculiar.

1865 *Self-developing [see self-changing ppl. a. 1]. 1980 N. Marsh Photo-Finish iii. 79 The lens cap..produced instant self-developing results.

a 1586 Sidney Apol. Poetry (Arb.) 34 The *selfe-deuouring crueltie in his Father Atreus.

1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xi. 465 Whenever we conceive any object as *self-differentiating.

1781 Cowper Conversat. 735 Shame upon a *self-disgracing age.

1945 Koestler Yogi & Commissar iii. iv. 242 Koehler assumes that there are *self-distributing electromagnetic currents between the cortical projections of retinal points.

1966 English Studies XLVII. 201 Only the second look of recent criticism has shown how homosexual were those claims, and how *self-doubting and despairing.

a 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 339, I had noticed already that Ray Gunter was a dramatic, *self-dramatizing kind of chairman.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. 670 Foule-squinting Envie, that *selfe-eating Elfe.

1692 W. Marshall Gosp. Myst. Sanctif. iv. (1764) 65 What a *self-emptying grace faith is.

1945 Auden Coll. Poetry 120 That through his self-annulment the real world Of *self-enduring instants may endure Its final metamorphosis.

1965 F. Sargeson Memoirs of Peon viii. 265 The *self-enhancing aim of endeavouring to ameliorate the lot of the family.

1854 Geo. Eliot tr. Feuerbach's Essence Christianity ii. 40 The understanding alone..is the *self-enjoying, self-sufficing existence. 1951 Auden Enchafèd Flood iii. 102 All it desires is to be in equilibrium, a self-enjoying, self-sufficient self.

1634 R. Bolton (title) A Three-fold Treatise: containing the Saints..*Selfe-enriching Examination.

1947 Mind LVI. 58 The problem of a *self-equilibrating physical system can now be attacked with both vigor and generality. 1974 W. Rees-mogg Reigning Error iv. 81 A gold system is a self-equilibrating system operating on a constant world money supply.

1962 Listener 15 Mar. 455/1 Not all the provisions of the treaty [sc. Treaty of Rome] are of this so-called ‘*self-executing’ character.

1903 J. Joyce Let. 9 Mar. (1966) II. 35, I enclose you *self-explaining documents.

1868 Lowell Among my Bks., Shaks. once more (1870) 217 Our *self-exploiting nineteenth century.

1646 Fuller Wounded Consc. iv. 24 A wounded Conscience, *selfe-fearing, selfe-frighted.

1865 H. Maudsley Meth. of Study of Mind 18 It is ridiculous to suppose that the man of genius is ever a fountain of *self-generating energy. 1968 H. Harris Nucleus & Cytoplasm vi. 122 On any model..we are forced to consider how a set of conditions, initially produced in a cell by external stimuli, can become self-generating.

1887 A. Seth Hegelianism vi. 205 Hegel, like Plato, seeks reality not in the actual world, but in the eternal realm of an absolute and *self-guaranteeing thought. 1961 J. Wilson Reason & Morals iii. 164 What is irrational is that such people take their feelings as self-guaranteeing, that they treat them as carrying their own justification with them.

1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. i. 102 *Selfe-harming Iealousie.

1977 New Yorker 29 Aug. 82/3 Perhaps there was the same sort of *self-hating or fearful motive behind Hitler's orders to murder the most helpless patients in the hospitals of the Third Reich.

1828–32 Webster s.v., The *self-healing power of living animals and vegetables.

a 1711 Ken Hymns Festiv. Poet. Wks. I. 289 *Self-humbling View. 1938 R. Graves Coll. Poems p. xiii, It is an exorcism of physical pretensions by self-humbling honesties.

1915 D. H. Lawrence Rainbow ii. 52 A burst of religious, *self-hurting fervour had passed over the country. 1939 R. Campbell Flowering Rifle vi. 150 And better maimed Of a self-hurting member so inflamed.

a 1922 T. S. Eliot Waste Land Drafts (1971) 101 line 26 One soul,..*Self-immolating on the Mound. 1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Tragedy I. i. iii. 16 Any self-abnegating and self-immolating religious theory.

1687 Norris Coll. Misc. 322 God..must needs be..*self-imparting and communicative.

1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 377/1 In many [orders] the sexes are..*self-impregnating.

1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Tragedy I. ii. xxi. 303 He was not without the *self-incriminating thought that in seeking this..he was driving toward a relationship which was not legitimate. 1964 Harvard Law Rev. Nov. 219 Implicit..is the proposition that in a pretrial police interrogation the accused has a right to remain silent, which he must waive intelligently before any self-incriminating statements will be admissible at trial.

1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Tragedy I. ii. xxiii. 313 Clyde..now approached, his manner the epitome almost of a *self-ingratiating..dog of high breeding and fine temperament.

1778 J. Brown (title) The *self-interpreting Bible. 1935 A. C. Baugh Hist. Eng. Lang. vii. 266 One further habit which was somewhat weakened [in Middle English], although by no means broken, was that of combining native words into self-interpreting compounds.

1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxxv, *Self-lacerating penitents.

a 1613 Overbury A Wife, etc. (1638) 101 *Selfe-lashing Penitentiaries.

1834 J. Macdonald in Tweedie Life iii. (1849) 228 In a very degraded and *self-loathing state of mind.

1868 J. H. Newman Verses on Var. Occas. 23 Her heart's *self-mastering power.

1966 English Studies XLVII. 204 The *self-mocking,..witty, ironical, comic Whitman.

1685 Boyle Salubr. Air 34 A kind of propagative of *self-multiplying power.

1963 L. Trilling in N. Frye Romanticism Reconsidered 83 One of Keats's boldest expressions of his sense that there is something perverse and *self-negating in the erotic life.

1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. iii. i. (1853) 167 O my wandering, *Self-neglecting Soul.

1960 Koestler Lotus & Robot ii. xi. 243 The split between the acting self and the *self-observing self disappears. 1961 Times 23 Mar. 17/2 The anti-hero, oddly likable and self-observing.

1860 Trench Serm. xv. 170 All acts of *self-offering love.

1961 D. Gabor et al. in C. Cherry Information Theory xxvii. 348 (heading) A *self-optimizing non⁓linear filter, predictor and simulator. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 251/1 Priban and Fincham..have been examining the adjustment of the rate and depth of breathing and the generation of individual breaths, using a ‘self-optimizing’ model.

1923 J. S. Huxley Essays of Biologist vi. 217 A universe which the march of knowledge is showing us ever more clearly as self-ordered and *self-ordering.

1958 R. Williams Culture & Society iii. 298 The development of an organized and *self-organizing working class.

1946 P. Larkin Jill 13 Never having heard before this *self-parodying Southern coo. 1958 S. Spender Engaged in Writing 14 Asphalt's..blotched face with its self-parodying leer.

1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 119 All the bad passions of our nature have a..*self-perpetuating power. 1938 Huxley & Haddon We Europeans iii. 8 The gene is then as self-perpetuating in its new type as it was in its old. 1971 N. Stacey Who Cares? viii. 139 It was quite obvious that few of our efforts looked like being self-generating and self-perpetuating.

1955 G. Gorer Exploring Eng. Character xv. 296 The English character became, to a very marked degree, ‘*self-policing’.

1922 *Self-prolonging [see self-abbreviating above].

1843 J. S. Mill Logic I. iii. xiii. 565 It is..upon such substances that the *self-propagating power of chemical action is likely to exert itself in the most marked manner. 1868 Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 265 In any soil congenial to its growth, the atocha is self-propagating.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. (Sommer) 315 b, To witnesse a *selfe-punishing repentaunce. 1978 H. McLeave Borderline Case (1979) i. 14 A bloody-minded, self-punishing type.

1827 Pollok Course of T. vii. 84 *Self-purifying, unpolluted sea!

1964 Punch 20 May 760/3 His..reaction..is bitterly *self-recognising.

1921 J. M. E. McTaggart Nature of Existence I. iv. xxxi. 299 Every substance which is a *self-reflecting unity possesses two sorts of unity—organic unity and unity of self-reflection.

1857 Gosse Omphalos xii. 349 note, The very supposition which he considers as *self-refuting is an indubitable physiological fact.

1953 J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action iv. 91 The organization..of large groups of nerve-cells and their connecting outgrowths into *self-reinforcing circuits of excitation.

1875 J. R. Lowell in Cambridge in Centennial Proc. 30 The wingëd years, that winnow praise and blame, Blow many names out: they but fan to flame The *self-renewing splendors of thy fame. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants 306 The food of an animal is self-renewing.

1871 Morley Condorcet in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 73 They move in a constant and *self-repeating orbit.

1946 Nature 21 Sept. 406/1 Alternatively..some *self-replicating cytoplasmic constituent of a complex cell, such as a plasmagene, may become capable of multiplying when transferred to a new environment.

1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. 230 The chromosomes are *self-reproducing. 1964 Sci. Amer. Sept. 149 (caption) The little red and blue ‘creatures’ in the photograph..are the two kinds of part of an elementary self-reproducing machine designed by..L. S. Penrose.

1825 Hazlitt Spirit of Age 186 A lofty and *self-scrutinising ambition.

1838 W. E. Channing Self-Culture 12 There are two powers of the human soul which make self-culture possible, the *self-searching and the self-forming power. 1978 P. Griffiths Conc. Hist. Mod. Music iii. 34 Both have a public rhetoric which was..foreign to Schoenberg in his profoundly self-searching form of Expressionism.

1827 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. III. vi. ii. 415 The probability, of mendacity, *self-serving mendacity, and consequent deception, attached to the admission of the testimony of the party in his own behalf. 1896 Southwestern Reporter XXXIII. 791/1 On a criminal trial, self-serving acts of the defendants are properly excluded. 1904 J. H. Wigmore Treat. Syst. Evidence III. lvii. 2273 There is no principle of evidence especially excluding ‘self-serving’ statements by an accused or by any one else. 1958 Listener 18 Sept. 412/2 How far would the majority go in applying the general rule excluding what are sometimes called self-serving statements to conduct? 1972 J. Philips Vanishing Senator (1973) ii. iii. 76, I always thought he was a kind of cheap, self-serving jerk.

1904 W. James in Mind XIII. 474 It seems to me to illustrate beautifully how *self-stultifying the conception of a truth that shall merely register a standing fixture may become. 1955 J. L. Austin How to do Things with Words (1962) iv. 51 This commits you to it and refuses to commit you to it. It is a self-stultifying procedure.

1842 E. FitzGerald Let. 16 Aug. (1960) 37 When I read of your..riding into Naples with huge *self-supplying beakers full of the warm South I am sure you had best stay where you are. 1946 Nature 2 Nov. 606/1 A permanent self-supplying community of professional miners.

1807 Wordsw. White Doe 1630 A *self-surviving leafless oak.

1964 J. Z. Young Model of Brain v. 69 In particular we are interested in a *self-teaching homeostat, that is to say, one whose information and instructions are not entirely built in by heredity.

1668 Owen Indwelling Sin 297 Penances, and *self-torturing Discipline. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. lxxvii, The self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau.

1849 Dana Geol. ii. (1850) 107 The *self-triturating sands of the reefs.

a 1711 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. II. 83 Past vices gall his *self-upbraiding Mind.

1945 Mind LIV. 46 These beliefs were after all cases of immediate knowledge which would therefore be *self-validating and so require no further explanation.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. (Sommer) 202 With a certaine sincere boldenesse of *selfe-warranting friendship.

1652 Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro Wks. (1904) 247 O soft *self-wounding Pelican!

a 1656 Bp. Hall Let. Person Qual., Our exposedness to the danger of *self-wronging consequences.

  † g. With vb.-stems, forming adjs., as self-tire = self-tiring. Also self-kill. Obs.

1615 Chapman Odyss. xvi. 5 The *selfe-tyre barking Dogs.

  h. With vbs. (? obs.) and pres. pples.

1609 W. M. Man in Moone (1849) 13 This pretious weede..doth so *selfe-besot those which take it.

a 1618 Sylvester Mottoes 204 What Beautie's This..*Self-blinds, *self-bindes, and self it self bewitches?

Ibid. 286 In Fire, Air, Earth, Water, The world *self-drowns, *self-burns, *self-hangs, *self-slaies.

1820 Keats Lamia i. 138 She..cower'd..*self-folding like a flower that faints into itself at evening hour.

1738 Wesley Ps. xxxvi. i, He..*Self-soothing in his lost Estate Sleeps on secure.

1858 Longfellow M. Standish vii. 58 Then stood Pecksuot forth, *self-vaunting.

  i. With advs. related to actual or possible formations in e and f (above).

1899 Westm. Gaz. 8 June 2/1 The figure seems..*self-cognisably burthened with the griefs of all the generations.

1890 Pall Mall G. 24 Mar. 5/2 He *self-consolingly exclaimed, ‘Le roi me reverra.’

1924 W. Holtby Crowded Street xxxv. 259 She laughed *self-deprecatingly.

1966 S. Beer Decision & Control xiv. 346 More typically, and more ‘*self-organizingly’, we say that energy evens out.

? 1629 Donne Serm. vii. (1640) 65 To come..so *selfe proditoriously, as to betray himselfe..to his enemies.

1909 R. Law Tests of Life xi. 220 He who *self-tolerantly commits sin.

1933 Auden Dance of Death 32 *Self-understandingly I come.

1901 Academy 14 Dec. 585/2 Only intense feeling can use it [a metre] *self-vindicatingly.

  2. Compounds with pa. pples. and ppl. adjs. in which self- denotes the agent or what is conceived as the agent; = by oneself or itself, by one's own (unaided) efforts or action, without help from others. Also with related advs., as self-confessedly, and occas. with other adjs., as self-adhesive.
  Such compounds may qualify the designation of: (a) a person or thing that is the subject and object of the action, as self-appointed censors = censors appointed by themselves; (b) a thing that is operated upon, performed, produced, etc. by oneself, as self-appointed duties = duties appointed by the person himself; (c) a thing conceived as operated upon by itself, as self-arched rocks = rocks formed into arches of themselves without human or mechanical agency, self-balanced = balanced without external support; cf. 3 b below.
  When transferred from a person to his actions, etc., compounds of this class (like those of 1 f) acquire a wider meaning; thus, self-abandoned = abandoned by oneself, hence, full of or marked by self-abandonment.
  In some cases the formations are analogical and scarcely admit of analytical explanation; e.g. † self-assured from self-assurance, self-denied from self-denial, self-mortified from self-mortification.

1791 Cowper Iliad xii. 138 Nor expected less Than that..the host Should *self-abandon'd fall an easy prey.

1813 Byron Giaour 1006 The *self-accorded grave Of ancient fool and modern knave.

1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 25 *Self-acknowledged beasts.

1814 F. Burney Wanderer III. xlv. 107 Their honour was *self-acquitted and their generosity was self-applauded. 1825 Scott Betrothed xxii, When she stood self-acquitted to her own mind.

1958 Engineers' Digest XIX. 244/1 (heading) *Self-adhesive nameplates. 1977 Lancashire Life Dec. 80/1 Products range from a reproduction of a timbered English pub for a Paris shoe exhibition to self-adhesive stickers for confectionery packets.

1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 55 They [sc. primitive religions]..become *self-adjusted to man's growing intellectual capacity and needs.

1908 Daily Chron. 6 Nov. 5/3 An overdose of morphia *self-administered.

1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 53 His Treasons will sit blushing in his face, Not able to endure the sight of Day; But *selfe-affrighted, tremble at his sinne.

1799 Hull Advertiser 21 Sept. 3/2 Some of them [pilots] are *self-appointed. 1892 Zangwill Bow Myst. 172 His engrossing self-appointed duties.

1762 Churchill Night 114 Where Virtue, *self-approv'd, reclines her head.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. 537 Rocks *self-arched by the eating Current.

1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. v, His *self-assumed profession of the law.

1833 J. H. Newman Arians i. iii. (1876) 55 The *self-authorised, arbitrary doctrines of the heretics.

1667 Milton P.L. vii. 242 Earth *self-ballanc't on her Center hung. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 348 Crutchless and self-balanced.

1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. xv. 78 *Self-banish'd from his native shore.

a 1716 South Serm. (1717) IV. 156 *Self-befooled Sinners.

1784 New Spectator No. i. 7 The *self-be-paragraphed, the self-puffed and the self-adoring Mother Abington.

1784 Cowper Tiroc. 171 *Self-betray'd, and wilfully undone.

1644 Digby Nat. Soul Concl. 455 To transforme me totally into a *selfe-blessed creature.

1640 Bastwick Lord Bps. ix, If the Prelates were not *selfe-blinded, they might discerne the reason. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. xvi, Her pompous self-blinded father.

1846 Brockett N.C. Words s.v., Adder-stone, a perforated stone—the perforation imagined by the vulgar to be made by the sting of an adder... They are also called *self-bored stones.

1838 E. B. Browning Seraphim 50 The winding, wandering music that returns Upon itself in starry course, *self-bound To praise, and praise, and praise. 1935 T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral i. 29 Cabined in Canterbury, realmless ruler, Self-bound servant of a powerless Pope.

1845 J. R. Lowell in Broadway Jrnl. 8 Mar. 154/2 A guess At the spirit's deathlessness, Which ye entertain with fear In your *self-built dungeon here. 1970 A. G. Frank in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. vi. 220 In Mexico City 30 per cent of the population lives in self-built housing.

1784 Cowper Task v. 88 *Self-buried ere they die.

1748 Richardson Clarissa IV. 347 Evils *self-caused..admit not of palliation. 1839 Hallam Lit. Eur. iv. iii. §74 Every substance therefore is self-caused; that is its essence implies its existence.

a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 5 To ease *self-chosen pain. 1856 Bagehot Coll. Works (1965) I. 408 Anything free refers to the people; anything elected seems self-chosen. 1972 Guardian 19 Jan. 2/7 Vienna's self-chosen image of ‘Schlamperei’, roughly translated as carefree sloppiness.

1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 240 H[ydrangea] petiolaris, *self-clinging climbing species, white.

1718 Pope Iliad xiv. 196 *Self-clos'd behind her shut the valves of gold.

1844 P. Harwood Hist. Irish Reb. 25 Hosts of armed citizens, self-paid and *self-commissioned. 1856 Aytoun Bothwell v. xiv, Bold in his self-commissioned cause.

1922 Joyce Ulysses 712 Ever would he wander, *selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit.

1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. i. ii, To beare too deepe a sense Of her owne *selfe-conceiued excellence.

c 1900 H. A. Jones Mrs. Dane's Defence iv. 83, I intend that Mrs. Bulsom-Porter shall stay..as a *self-confessed scandal-monger. 1981 M. Underwood Hand of Fate ii. 91 Even a self-confessed liar is capable of telling the truth.

1977 A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory i. 72 Lakatos's sophisticated methodological falsificationism is *self-confessedly an attempt to reconcile a version of Popper's philosophy of science with some of the major difficulties created for the latter by the works of Kuhn and others.

1699 Bentley Phal. 69 This lame and *self-confuted Story.

1809 J. Orrok Let. 28 Sept. (1927) 110 Here, and at every other Station, they had *self-constituted Committees and carried everything their own way. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. ix, The old gentleman, his self-constituted companion.

1634 Milton Comus 597 It shall be in eternal restless change Self-fed, and *self-consum'd.

1644 ― Divorce ii. iii. 39 Mans own will *self-corrupted.

1742 Young Nt. Th. vi. 495 Learn, and lament, thy *self-defeated scheme.

1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh i. 28 Books, that prove God's being so definitely, that man's doubt Grows *self-defined the other side the line, Made atheist by suggestion. 1977 R. Holland Self & Social Context v. 95 There is a strong sense of tension between socially given role demands and self-defined role demands.

1667 Milton P.L. iii. 130 The first sort by thir own suggestion fell, Self-tempted, *self-deprav'd.

1784 Cowper Task i. 259 *Self-depriv'd Of other screen.

1846 J. D. Morell Hist. Philos. II. v. 117 We..come, at length, at the end of the process, to a self-produced, or rather a *self-developed, subject-object.

1808 Lamb Adv. Ulysses vii. (1848) 74 Some have said..that they [sc. our vessels] move instinctively, *self-directed. 1894 Pop. Sci. Monthly XLIV. 516 Self-directed acts of perception.

1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. viii. 14 *Selfe disliked life.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. 393 Their *self-doom'd soules.

1789 Cowper On the Queen's Visit to London 14 And rockets flew, *self-driven.

1818 M. W. Shelley Frankenstein ii, It is a still greater evil to me that I am *self-educated. 1898 ‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Mar. 533/2 When an Austrian is called Doctor it means that he is either a lawyer or a physician, and that he is not a self-educated man. 1977 Listener 15 Dec. 783/1 From his self-educated mother, Trilling inherited a love of English literature.

1871 Fraser Berkeley ix. 351 His unborrowed, evidently *self-elaborated thought.

1797 Southey Vis. Maid of Orleans iii, The little glow-worm's *self-emitted light.

1947 Hansard Commons 15 Dec. 1441 Mr. Amory asked the Minister of Food why persons who would qualify otherwise for the extra cheese are ineligible if they are *self-employed. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Med. LXXI. 768 ‘Persons’ include both salaried and self-employed, including those self-employed persons established in one country who provide services in another.

1860 Tyndall Glac. i. i. 2 A diamond is a crystal *self-erected from atoms of carbon.

1859 J. S. Mill in Fraser's Mag. LX. 767/1 An enemy, or a *self-fancied rival.

1634 *Self-fed [see self-consum'd above]. 1881 O. Wilde Poems 123 That holocaust, That self-fed flame. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 1 Mar. 72/2 He had heard a lot of farmers expressing disappointment in the..meat yield from self-fed silage.

1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. iii. 124 To knit their soules..in *self-figur'd knot.

1590 C'tess Pembroke Antonie 742 Unhappy he, in whome selfe-succour lies, Yet *selfe-forsaken wanting succour dies.

1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. i. (1626) 17 She starts: and from her selfe, *self-frighted, fled.

1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 332 Who, still *self-furnisht, needest borrow never Diana's shafts.

1935 M. Lowenfeld Play in Childhood i. 37 Play..is taken as applying to all activities in children that are spontaneous and *self-generated. 1965 J. D. Chambers in Glass & Eversley Population in Hist. xiii. 333 The increase in the industrial population was partly self-generated.

a 1667 Cowley Ret. Scotl. Wks. 1711 III. 40 The *self-gotten Phœnix.

1820 Keats Hyperion i. 161 The Titans fierce, *self-hid, or prison-bound.

1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) III. 121 The oyster..is *self-impregnated.

1815 Zeluca III. 44 She never knew the *Self-incurred Catastrophe.

1938 (title) The Oxford companion to music: *self-indexed and with a pronouncing glossary. 1978 Canad. N. & Q. Dec. 1/2, I am in the process of preparing a bibliography of Canadian periodicals that are self-indexed, or which have been indexed externally.

1879 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 81 What the heart is! which, like carriers let fly..To its own fine function, wild and *self-instressed.

1654 Owen Doctr. Saints Persev. xiii. 313 A vaine, superstitious, *selfe-invented Worship of God.

1748 Richardson Clarissa VII. 288 Some other more distant relations.., *self-invited..attended. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. xvi, This self-invited guest. 1979 C. MacLeod Family Vault (1980) xviii. 162 The first of the self-invited guests slumped into a wooden chair.

1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. iii. 253 And left one altar dark, a little space, Which turned *self-kindled, and renewed the blaze.

1889 Spectator 28 Dec. 922/1 A tax..*self-levied.

1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis iv. xviii. 306 The *selfe-maim'd Thracian King.

1903 A. R. Wallace Man's Place in Universe iii. 44 By the use of the photographic plate the exact positions of..thousands of stars can be *self-mapped simultaneously.

1849 M. Arnold Mycerinus 28 When the duped soul, *self-mastered, claims its meed.

1849 C. Brontë Shirley vii, The thoughts were *self-matured.

1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iv. 376 Thy Selfe, is *selfe-misvs'd.

1809 Malkin Gil Blas xi. xiii. ¶13 You are become highly moral and *self-mortified.

1819 Wordsw. Waggoner iv. 64 The vapours sweep Along..Like fleecy clouds *self-multiplied.

a 1704 T. Brown Lond. & Lacedem. Oracles Wks. 1709 III. iii. 135 *Self-nam'd Athenians.

1955 S. Spender Making of Poem i. iv. 67 The observer is *self-observed.

a 1700 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. III. 112 Lord, I *self-offer'd, am not mine.

1923 *Self-ordered [see self-ordering, sense 1 f above].

1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 252 A contributor..gives a vivid description of a particular party of *self-organized jollyboys.

1855 Milman Lat. Christ. xiv. ii. (1864) IX. 53 Those who were *self-outlawed, or outlawed by the dominant authority.

c 1865 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 120, I storm and shock you. So I fail. And like a *self-outwitted blast Fling to the convent wicket fast.

1962 H. C. Weston Sight, Light & Work (ed. 2) iii. 76 Persons of average vision are able to perform *self-paced tasks requiring the perception of detail.

1835 J. S. Mill in Lond. Rev. I. ii. iv. 360 The unpaid is apt to become the *self-paid. 1844 Self-paid [see self-commissioned above].

1864 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. x. (1866) 171 Lewis the Pious, submitting to a fresh coronation, admitted the invalidity of his former *self-performed one.

1821 Lamb Elia i. Witches & other night-fears, Had I never met with the picture, the fears would have come *self-pictured in some shape or other.

1822 S. Rogers Italy (1823) 55 An ancient grove *Self-planted.

1830 Tennyson Dirge v, Round thee blow, *self-pleached deep, Bramble roses.

1868 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) II. vi. 81 These molecular blocks of salt are *self-posited.

1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. v. 374 A private maid, how highly soever *self-pretended.

1943 A. V. Barber Let. 8 Feb. in W. Temple Lett. (1963) 58 Their arguments reveal elementary, and sometimes even *self-proclaimed, ignorance of the monetary mechanism. 1979 A. Chisholm Nancy Cunard xi. 103 John Banting..was to become England's sole self-proclaimed Surrealist painter.

1647 C. Harvey Schola Cordis iv. 8 Why dost thou hugge thy *self-procured woes?

1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. iv. ii. (1824) III. 82 Their shell is *self-produced. 1977 Lancet 30 July 207/2 A large proportion of the food consumed is self-produced.

1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. iii. 542/1 Complete phonological English alphabet constructing *self-pronouncing words with the proper orthography. 1931 (title) The Royal Webster dictionary for home and school, self-pronouncing.

1678 *Self-punish'd [see self-accused].

1738 G. Lillo Marina III. ii. 50 *Self-resign'd to silence and despair.

1667 Milton P.L. ix. 183 [The Serpent] In Labyrinth of many a round *self-rowld.

1849 M. Arnold Skakespeare 10 *Self-school'd, *self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure.

1970 P. Y. Carter Mr Campion's Falcon ix. 68 A belt of *self-seeded larches.

1924 G. B. Shaw St. Joan Pref. p. xlii, The saints and prophets..are always really self-selected, like Joan. 1977 J. D. Douglas in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. i. 17 At first the recruits to this rationalized segment of society were self-selected.

1828 Bp. A. Jolly Sunday Services (1840) 276 False and *self-sent teachers.

1865 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 169 Will no one show I argued ill? Because, although *Self-sentenced, still I keep my trust. a 1957 R. Campbell tr. Camões's Lusiads in Coll. Poems (1960) III. 129 Like Canace, self-sentenced and undone.

1785 F. Burney Lett. 25 Aug., So hard and dangerous a *self-set task. 1956 Nature 10 Mar. 490/1 The distribution of this *self-set seed mainly on the more heterozygous members of the population restricts the rate of fixation of genetic variability under these conditions. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Jan. 94/2 Downright despair over his herculean, self-set task.

1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. ii. vii, Guardsman Pâris..will be found some months after, *self-shot in a remote inn.

1856 J. G. Whittier Panorama 23 The *self-sold knaves of gain and place. 1924 G. B. Shaw Saint Joan Pref. p. lii, We do not..rush to the opposite extreme in a recoil from her as from a witch self-sold to the devil.

1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. 80 His life was one long war with *self sought foes.

1862 All Year Round 13 Sept. 8 A rough kind of grass,..on the sharp points of whose rigid blades flies and beetles are often *self-spitted.

a 1700 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. III. 295 Matter self-form'd, self-mov'd, *self-steer'd.

1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 210 *Self-stimulated thoughts, in place of those implanted from without.

1823 Bentham Not Paul but Jesus 206 The sort of connection..between the undoubted Apostles, and this *self-styled one. 1907 National Church 15 Oct. 263/1 The self-styled ‘Free Churches’.

1605 Shakes. Lear ii. ii. 129 He..got praises of the King, For him attempting, who was *selfe-subdued.

1801 Southey Thalaba i. xxx, Here *self-suspended hangs in air,..The living carbuncle. 1667 *Self-tempted [see self-depraved above].

1922 Joyce Ulysses 344 A neat blouse of electric blue, *self-tinted by dolly dyes.

1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xv, Thy father's battle-brand..Did, *self-unscabbarded, foreshow The foot⁓step of a secret foe.

1866 Ch. Times 3 Feb., A *self-vaunted ‘friend of the working classes’.

a 1763 Shenstone Past. Ode to Lyttleton xxv, To see the babbling floods Thro' *self-worn mazes flow.

1823 Bentham Not Paul but Jesus 110 In comparison of *self-written biography, scarcely does any other biography deserve the name.

  (b) Rarely, with adjs. in -able; as self-impairable = liable to be impaired by one's own action, self-irrecoverable = not recoverable by oneself (whence self-irrecoverableness).

1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §36. 565 Endowed with..Freewill, and consequently..*Self-improvable and *Self-impairable.

1782 J. Brown View of Nat. & Rev. Relig. v. iv, We are altogether guilty, polluted, miserable and *self-irrecoverable.

Ibid. vi. i, Their sinfulness, misery, and *self-irrecoverableness.

1769 ― Dict. Bible s.v. Gospel, *Self-irreformable transgressors.

  b. With nouns of action, as self-selection (see also self-assembly 1, etc.). Similarly with verbs (usu. forming adjs., occas. ns.), as self-build, self-erect, self-feed (see also self-drive a.).

1952 Times 5 Mar. 5/6 The first self-build society put up its first houses over three years ago. There are now several scores of societies with hundreds of houses built or building. 1976 Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 13 Dec. 13 (Advt.), Renta-tower lightweight self-build staging.

1924 Motor 28 Oct. 697/1 The open tourer, with its self-erect transparent side screens. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. 20/2 (Advt.), Self-erect cattle shelter.

1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 127/1 Self-feed Base Burner... A neat, attractive stove. 1951 Sun (Baltimore) 31 May 9/5 Mixing salt with cottonseed meal enables livestock growers to self-feed controlled amounts of protein supplement to their beef cattle. 1958 Times 1 July (Suppl.) p. viii/7 For up to 20 cows the trailer can be a home-made self-feed rack standing on an ordinary farm trailer. 1969 Times 24 Feb. 12/2 Larger farmers have taken advantage of improvement grants to erect concrete-and-asbestos covered yards and silos, generally using a combination of self-feed and easy-feed. 1975 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 63/1 We self-fed our grass silage.

1962 E. Godfrey Retail Selling & Organization i. 7 Members..can..obtain..financial assistance in the conversion of their shops to self-service or self-selection. 1979 Guardian 5 Nov. 22/2 A half of all Jobcentre placements are made as a result of the self-selection of a job by a job-seeker.

  3. Compounds in which self- is adverbial: a. with ns., adjs., vbs., advs. = for, in, into, on or upon, to or towards, with oneself or itself, the prep. to be supplied being that required in the construction taken by the word which forms the second element; e.g. self-absorbed = absorbed in oneself, self-acquaintance = acquaintance with oneself, self-addressed = addressed to oneself, self-compassion = compassion for oneself.

1847 Helps Friends in C. I. v. 85, I do not mean that people are to be *self-absorbed. 1903 Somerville & ‘Ross’ All on Irish Shore 132 His face was pale and strange and entirely self-absorbed. 1980 D. Newsome On Edge of Paradise 8 One can admit to being self-absorbed... Arthur was genuinely self-critical.

1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. vii. (1853) 50 *Self-acquaintance shews a man the particular Sins he is most..addicted to.

1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence xix, To become now *self-acquainters.

1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xvi. 323 Sullennesse and *self-addiction, things ill beseeming his noble spirit.

1847 C. Brontë Professor xxiii, A voice..so low, so *self-addressed. 1904 Delineator Dec. 1084 If you will send a stamped self-addressed envelope, we will tell you where you can take a course. 1976 Oxford Consumer Mar. 11/1 Sending a stamped self-addressed envelope (6 × 3½) to the Chief Superintendent, St Aldate's Police Station.

1880 Q. Rev. CXLIX. 285 The honourable and..*self-advantageous task.

1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 250 Vlis. If he were proud... Dio. Or strange, or *selfe affected.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. ii. xxvii. (1674) 177 *Self-affectionate people..prove perfidious.

1964 M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. iv. 55 There is some evidence that *self-aggression is a result of displaced aggression.

a 1593 Marlowe Ovid's Eleg. iii. viii. [ix.] 10 And knocks his bare brest with *selfe-angry hands.

1697 G. Burghope Disc. Relig. Assemb. 114 Reflection, and *self-application.

1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 76 If I had *self-applied Love to myself.

1663 Owen Vind. Animadv. Wks. 1851 XIV. 405 Such *self-assumings are many of the old papal epistles stuffed withal. 1837 Tennent Vis. Glencoe 58 The self-assuming smile.

1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 133 In *selfe-assumption greater Then in the note of iudgement.

1784 Cowper Task i. 616 A school in which he learns..Mean *self-attachment.

1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. lxv. VII. 392 Held firmly together by its inherent *self-attraction.

1649 Roberts Clavis Bibl. 184 Luxury, Vain-glory, *Self-attributions.

1894 Mrs. Oliphant Autobiogr. (1899) 81, I have fallen back into my own way of *self-comment.

1898 T. Hardy Wessex Poems 2 ‘Life is roomy yet, and the odds unbounded’. So *self-communed I.

1863 I. Williams Baptistery i. xi. (1874) 130 With silence and with *self-communing fear. 1927 E. M. Forster Aspects of Novel iii. 67 The..self-communings which politeness and shame prevent him from mentioning. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Jan. 21/3 A seven-year-old girl's self-communings.

1818 Byron Juan i. xci. 48 His *self-communion with his own high soul. 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist (1969) 160 The impression which effaced his troubled selfcommunion was that of a mirthless mask reflecting a sunken day from the threshold of the college.

a 1634 Chapman Rev. for Honour ii. i. 202 *Self-compassion, soothing us to faith Of what we wish should hap.

1875 Lowell Lit. Ess., Wordsw. Wks. 1890 IV. 406 *His self-concentrated nature.

1862 Lytton Str. Story II. 53 Intense *self-concentration is..a mighty magician.

1816 H. G. Knight Ilderim 577 Some deep dream of *self-concenter'd thought.

1680 J. Quarles (title) *Self-Conflict: or, the Powerful Motions between the Flesh and Spirit.

1819 Shelley Prometheus Unbound iv. 259 Its intense yet self-conflicting speed. 1848 R. I. Wilberforce Doctr. Incarnation xiv. (1852) 423 The partial, *self-conflicting, uncertain views.

1725 Pope Odyss. vi. 170 The King..*self-considering, as he stands, debates.

1710 Shaftesbury Charac., Advice to Author i. §1 Our Exercise of *Self-Converse.

1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 866 *Self-cruell Mothers.

1643 Milton Divorce 37 Those commands..which compell us to *self-cruelty above our strength.

1725 Pope Odyss. xx. 36 Ulysses..In *self-debate the Suitors doom resolv'd.

1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. 133 *Self-designers are seldom disappointed.

1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. III. lviii. 290 His endurance was mingled with a *self-discontent.

1853 Kingsley Hypatia xiii, He continued talking to himself aloud after the manner of restless *self-discontented men.

1671 Milton Samson 514 *Self-displeas'd For self-offence.

1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions (1658) 1047 A *self-displicency and severity towards our own errors.

1802 Mrs. J. West Infidel Father III. 239 The earl..endeavoured to conceal his chagrin and *self-dissatisfaction. 1891 W. James Let. 6 July (1920) I. 310 You've been saved many forms of self-dissatisfaction and misery. 1981 V. Canning Boy on Platform One ii. 30 She felt a rare mood of self-dissatisfaction.

1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 1 The *self-dissatisfied race of men.

1964 Language XL. 226 Syntactically complex *self-embedded constructions in English.

1963 *Self-embedding [see push-down a. 1]. 1978 Language LIV. 171 Yngve is probably best known as the man who erroneously attributed to left-branching the effects of self-embedding.

1727 Somerville Use of Looking-Glass 14 On her the *self-enamour'd chit Was very lavish of his wit.

1814 F. Burney Wanderer IV. lxxi. 240 Juliet passed three days, *self-inclosed. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxvi, Its self-enclosed unreasonableness and impiety.

1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. i. 56 She cannot loue..Shee is so *selfe indeared.

1848 Dickens Dombey xxx, [She] in her *self-engrossment did not trouble herself about the nature of this agitation.

1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xxv, The *self-exultation with which he was, as it were, distended.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems Addit. Exorcismus 18 You *self-exulting sprights.

1647 Bp. Hall Sel. Th. §34 The *self-felony of a wilful sinner.

1842 Tennyson ‘Of old sat Freedom’ ii, *Self-gather'd in her prophet-mind.

1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. v. 78 A *selfe gracious remembrance.

1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. xii. 265 We are to seek..for some absolute truth..a truth *self-grounded, unconditional and known by its own light. 1940 Mind XLIX. 171 All demonstration leads back to indemonstrable bases, and grounds must themselves be grounded on what is self-grounded.

1691 South 12 Serm. (1697) II. 484 A fatal *Self-imposture.

1920 ‘K. Mansfield’ Let. 27 Oct. (1977) 190 Don't you feel that what English writers lack today is experience of Life. I don't mean that superficially. But they are *self-imprisoned.

1876 L. Stephen Eng. Th. 18th C. II. 30 Every vicious action must be *self-injurious.

1864 Pusey Lect. Daniel vii. 433 To secure the poor sufferer from *self-injury, or from injuring others.

1667 Milton P.L. xi. 93 His heart I know, how variable and vain *Self-left.

1922 Joyce Ulysses 212 Amused Buck Mulligan mused in pleasant murmur with himself, *self-nodding.

1876 Mrs. Oliphant Phœbe Jun. xxvi, His *self-occupation was an offence to the girl.

1795–1814 Wordsw. Excursion i. 798 The careless stillness of a thinking mind *Self-occupied.

1818 Art Pres. Feet 128 A mode of cure, less dangerous in the hands of a *self-operator than the knife.

1900 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms, *Self-parasitism, parasitic on its own species.

1819 Byron Mazeppa xvii. 80 At times sought with *self-pointed sword.

1959 ‘M. Ainsworth’ Murder is Catching xv. 173 The sublime *self-preoccupation of so many actors.

a 1592 T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 179 Vnwise they were their sorrowes *selfe procuring.

1654 Whitlock Zootomia 440, I will not think men that want Bread, do therefore want Wisdome (even that of *Self-provision).

1883 F. H. Bradley Logic III. i. vi. 448 The analysis in the end is hence not synthesis, if that means *self-relation. 1906 D. H. MacGregor in Hibbert Jrnl. July 800 The fact of self-distinction from the world is as ultimate as that of self-relation to it.

1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. vi. 197 The enjoyable *self-repose of certitude.

1856 Mrs. Carlyle in Froude Carlyle (1890) II. 197 Then I should be going as part of your luggage without *self-responsibility.

1820 Keats Isabella xvii, *Self-retired In hungry pride and gainful cowardice.

1671 Milton Samson 513 Who *self-rigorous chooses death as due. 1591 *Self-rumineth [see rumine].

1671 Milton Samson 827 Impartial, *self-severe, inexorable.

1891 T. Hardy Tess xxxvii, *Self-solicitude was near extinction in her.

a 1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia iii. (1598) 346 These doubtful *selfe-speches.

1715 Wodrow's Corr. (1843) II. 37 My *self-tenderness will not allow me to spend time at night on the records.

1687 Norris Coll. Misc. 234 Since he [man] is not a Central and *self-terminating Being.

Ibid. 303, I conclude that I am not..a Central or *self-terminative Being.

1865 Grote Plato I. vii. 293 Individual, *self-thinking minds.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. i. 99 Wishing already to dis-throne th'Eternall, And *selfe-usurp the Majesty supernall.

1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 2507/1 The *self-witness of Jesus to his divinity.

1849 Grote Greece ii. xlviii. VI. 145 The Peloponnesians were a *self-working population with few slaves.

1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iii. ii. 168 Least my selfe be guilty to *selfe wrong.

  b. with adjs. and related ns., vbs., pples. = of or in oneself or itself, of or in one's or its own nature or power; e.g. self-apparent = apparent of itself, self-desirable = desirable in itself. Also (after self-fertile), self-impotent, self-sterile adjs., self-sterility.

1845 Florist's Jrnl. 107 The utility of such a book..is *self-apparent.

1847–54 Webster, *Self-attractive, attractive by one's self.

1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. 574 [He] Hardens the King, and blinding him (*selfe-blinde) Leaves him to Lusts of his own vicious minde.

1857 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh vii. 289 Both faces leaned together like a pair Of folded innocences, *self-complete. 1882 H. S. Holland Logic & Life xviii. 273 The Holy Church..must..be also self-complete.

Ibid., By faith, spirit shows its self-mastery, its *self-completeness.

c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lviii. ii, The aspick..*self-deaf and unaffected lies.

1710 Norris Chr. Prud. v. 200 The end having an intrinsic Goodness of its own, and so being *Self-desirable.

1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. xlvi, Whiles *self-flowing sourse I here detect In plants.

1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 834 And on shamefull Tree (*Self-guiltless) shed his blood.

a 1586 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 148 *Selfe-guiltie folke most prone to feele compassion.

1869 Darwin Orig. Spec. viii. (ed. 5) 333 They have become *self-impotent, whilst still retaining the capacity of fertilising.

1704 Norris Ideal World ii. v. 280 In the head of these *Self-intelligible objects let us..place the great..God.

1798 W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) II. 173 To eclipse the *self-resplendent blaze.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. 392 Whether the Sun *self-shine.

1882 G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 165 This seems in English a point..insisted on, that words shall be single and specific marks for things, whether *self-significant or not.

1735 Somerville Chase iii. 286 The unweildly Beast *Self-sinking, drops into the dark Profound.

1876 Darwin Cross & Self Fertilisation ix. 329 *Self-sterile Plants. 1913 Self-sterile [see incompatibility 4 b].

1876 Darwin Cross & Self Fertilisation ix. 346 The belief that *self-sterility has been acquired to prevent self-fertilisation.

1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 392 Peter is *self-strong.

1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. xlv, All humane souls be *self-vivacious.

1695 Owen Faith of God's Elect Wks. 1851 V. 453 Those *self-whole, jolly professors which these days abound with.

  c. with pples. = from or out of oneself or itself (as a source or point of origin); e.g. self-arising = arising from or out of oneself.

a 1871 Grote Eth. Fragm. i. (1876) 20 This inward and *self-arising determination.

1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. (1765) 192 Those other Preconceptions—being Durable, *Self-derived, and Indeprivable.

1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 63 But Spider-like Out of his *Selfe-drawing Web.

1864 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xviii. (1866) 360 It was proclaimed that the individual spirit..had..an independent existence as a centre of *self-issuing force.

1684 Howe Redeemer's Tears Wks. (1846) 84 The Christians of our age deceive themselves with a *self-sprung religion. 1855 Bailey Mystic, etc. 113 Begetting and conceiving and self-sprung.

  4. In technical use, forming compounds to designate machines, appliances, or processes by or in which certain operations are performed without human or animal agency or special manipulation or adjustment for the purpose; usually = automatic, automatically. Also self-acting, etc.

1959 H. Barnes Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. 168 Our attention will, therefore, be focussed on remotely controlled or *self-actuating underwater cameras.

1834–6 Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 175/1 To some boilers are also attached *self-adjusting feeders to supply the fuel to the furnace.

1893 Outing XXII. 145/2 Thus making the boat *self-bailing.

1908 Harrod's Stores Price List 950 *Self-basting Roaster.

1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 32 Permanent *self-bury Anchor.

1825 Lunn in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) IV. 95/1 Cavallo's *self-charging jar.

1903 Daily Chron. 25 Feb. 10/4 *Self-clamp cutting machine.

1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Self-closing Bridge, a pivot bridge opened by canal-boats in passing. 1931 Times Educ. Suppl. 27 June 249/4 Noise is minimized by the use of self-closing double doors. 1971 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 18 Feb. 671/1 The barrier must be self-closing after a car has passed through.

1888 Papworth Gwilt's Encycl. Archit. §4148 a, Laths of wood rebated together, having numerous mortices, through which pass a series of tempered steel bands, causing the shutter to be *self-coiling.

1960 Times 7 Mar. 13/5 Refrigerators..*self defrosting.

1912 Proc. Physical Soc. XXIV. 342 (heading) The *self-demagnetisation of annealed steel rods.

1855 in Brit. Alm. & Comp. (1856) 50 Quick *self-discharge of water.

1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 35 The *self-disengaging coupling.

1886 Sci. Amer. LV. 373/2 A *self-dropping two-horse planter.

1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. Index 790 *Self-easing coupling.

1869 Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. L 6, Enabling the machine to drill or bore at any angle whatever with a *self-feed.

1877 Raymond Statist. Mines 48 The adoption of *self-feeders.

1834–6 Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 178/1 *Self-feeding furnace.

1908 Daily Chron. 27 Feb. 7/3 *Self-Filling Pens.

1869 Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. L 6, *Self-friction feed motion.

1884 *Self-going [see self-fluxing].

1906 *Self-hardening [see air-hardening a. s.v. air n.1 B. II].

1865 M. Mackenzie Laryngoscope 85 The *Self-holder, or fixateur for holding the laryngeal mirror after introduction.

1856 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 64 The *self-holding lever plough.

1865 Naval & Mil. Gaz. 16 Sept. 589/2 *Self-igniting cartridges. 1948 L. Spitzer Linguistics & Lit. Hist. iv. 167 Diderot has experienced to the bitter end the self-annihilation of the self-igniting mind.

1927 Automobile Engineer XVII. 500/1 Compression ignition stands out clearly as the one factor controlling the onset of detonation in engine practice, this simultaneous activation of compressed combustion being what is understood by the ‘*self-ignition temperature’ of a combustible. 1969 Gloss. Terms assoc. with Fire (B.S.I.) i. 7 Self-ignition temperature, the temperature at which a flammable gas/air mixture will ignite without an external source of ignition.

1842 Mech. Mag. XXXVI. 155/1 *Self-inking Printing Press.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. 47/3 (Advt.), Patent *self-levelling linkage ensures uniform depth of cultivation despite ground variations. 1965 Sun 28 Sept. 6/2 Citroen..continue their anti-flash campaign. They are fitting ‘self-levelling’ headlights to a new..version of their Drop⁓head Coupe. 1977 Observer 8 May 33/3 Low-roll cornering and self-levelling rear suspension keep the handling predictable under all loads.

1864 Atkinson Stanton Grange 299 A *self-lighting hydrogen lamp.

1899 Kynoch Jrnl. Oct.–Nov. 2/2 Jones's *self-loading cartridge case. 1973 Country Life 28 June 1907 Self-loading forage machines, used primarily for handling loose hay. 1977 R.A.F. News 8–21 June 5/3 Their equipment includes..self-loading rifles and Sterling sub-machine guns.

1976 V. Canning Doomsday Carrier i. 6 The door swung back to *self-lock.

a 1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 795/2 *Self locking hook, one which automatically closes. 1938 Archit. Rev. LXXXIII. p. lx/3 The glass is held by a continuous self-locking spring aluminium cover strip. 1980 D. Bloodworth Trapdoor xxx. 185 The door was self-locking and he could not force his way in.

1967 M. Chandler Ceramics in Mod. World v. 154 Among the many highly-specialized uses of graphite refractories is the making of *self-lubricating piston rings.

1947 M. M. Lewis Language in Society 136 The machines of war are its *self-operating weapons.

1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 260 ‘Midget’ recorder,..a *self-powered recorder which is light enough to be carried about without too much difficulty.

1853 G. J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand x, Heavy and light guns, *self-primers, revolvers, and other deadly weapons.

1899 Daily News 3 May 10/6 The *Self-Propelled Traffic Association. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station xxii. 428 To clear out the stores and take them by sea to other stations,..a large, self-propelled concrete lighter (R.A.F. 110) was used. 1945 Finito! Po Valley Campaign 31 Tanks and self-propelled guns were captured intact. 1977 J. Stern in Winter's Tales 23 178 Of his last years several were spent..in a self-propelled wheelchair on the roads..of Dorset.

1862 Times 7 Apr. 9/4 A *self-propelling bathing-machine. 1895 Daily News 11 June 7/5 Very little is known in England of what is being done in France with self-propelling carriages.

1866 Trans. Brit. Assoc. 1865 20 (heading) Description of the magnetic storm of the beginning of August 1865, as recorded by the *self-recording magnetographs at the Kew and Lisbon observatories. 1875 Chamb. Jrnl. 2 Jan. 7/2 Self-recording observatories. 1895 Army & Navy Soc. Price List 15 Sept. 1639 Self-Recording Aneroid Barometer and Clock.

1885 Arch. Ophthalmol. XIV. 54 The advantages offered by a perimeter with *self-register are too evident to be overlooked.

1836 Brande Chem. 140 The *self-registering thermometers..showing the maximum and minimum of temperature during the absence of the observer. 1847 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CXXXVII. 111 It would be superfluous to speak of those proposals..for self-registering, photographically, the variation of the declination magnet.

1847 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1846 ii. 11 In order to adapt it for *self-registration, a light conical brass tube..was affixed to the lower side.

1908 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 37/2 The shuttle is the most perfect self threading cylindrical shuttle... The needle is *self setting.

1948 W. E. Stephens et al. Nuclear Fission & Atomic Energy ix. 128 An interesting possible mechanism for *self-stabilization of a chain reaction in the presence of a cadmium absorber was suggested by Adler and von Halban. 1953 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers C. i. 101/1 The *self-stabilizing effect is so important in establishing an inherently safe and stable plant [sc. nuclear reactor]..that it should always be carefully studied.

1853 Ure Dict. Arts II. 697 His invention of the *self-strippers for the main cylinders.

1868 Joynson Metals 61 The *self-subsidation of the iron on the hearth.

1908 *Self-threading [see self-setting above]. 1964 Discovery Oct. 67/2 The Rank Organisation has recently marketed a 16 mm projector which is self-threading.

1864 Trans. Highl. Soc. Jan. 135 A *self-tipping platform.

1902 Westm. Gaz. 7 Apr. 4/2 Considerable practical advantage has been derived by the photographer from the *self-toning papers which are being so widely adopted.

1956 R. Sheckley in Aldiss & Harrison Decade 1950s (1976) 189 The portable sub-space set was *self-tuning.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. 72/3 He could load five tons of chopped silage from the barn silo into two *self-unloading trailers to feed 180 cows in three-quarters of an hour. 1964 New Scientist 4 June 596/2 The self-unloading ship is not new but economic factors have until recently restricted its operation.

1825 Mechanics' Mag. III. 293/2 M. Recordon..proceeded to England, where he obtained a patent for his invention of *self-winding watches, which were then in great request. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 239 Self-winding..[is] a watch or clock fitted with apparatus for winding it automatically.

  5. Compounds in which self- is in the adjective relation: † a. = relating to oneself, one's own, personal, individual, private, intimate. Obs. Cf. self pron. 3 c.

1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. 134 *Self-advantage can as easily incline some, to believe a falshood, as profess it.

1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 113 Ouer-full of *selfe-affaires.

1604 ― Oth. iii. iii. 200, I would not haue your free, and Noble Nature, Out of *selfe-Bounty, be abus'd.

1606 ― Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 182 He..speakes not to himselfe, but with a pride That quarrels at *selfe-breath.

1611 ― Cymb. iii. iv. 149 By *selfe-danger, you should tread a course Pretty, and full of view.

1717 Fenton Poems 203 Sickly'd with Age, and sow'r with *Self-disgrace.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. 17 Who..rather sin suppresse By *selfe-examples, then by rigorousnesse.

1616 B. Jonson Epigr. ii, Thou art not couetous of least *selfe fame.

1640 D. Cawdrey Three Serm. (1641) 8 *Selfe-guiltinesse commonly makes men partiall, in judging others.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. 54 Sufficient rich in *self-invention.

1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 134 Anger is like A full hot Horse, who being allow'd his way *Selfe-mettle tyres him.

1668 H. More Div. Dial. v. xxxvii. II. 436 Quitting all *Self-relishes he became an entire Servant of God.

1658 Earl of Monmouth tr. Paruta's Wars Cyprus 29 Whereby he might plead necessity of *selfe-safety for what he did.

1748 Richardson Clarissa II. 12, I am concerned, that you ever wrote at all to him..It was adding to his *self-significance.

1603 Florio Montaigne iii. ix. 575 Yet is it safe by *selfe-waight [pondere tuta suo], and will last.

1678 R. Barclay Apol. Quakers xi. §10 (1729) 365 The *Self-workings and Motions of his own Mind.

  b. = inherent in, depending upon, or proceeding from oneself (itself), one's nature, etc.; belonging to oneself (itself) as an independent creature; in the 17th cent. often spec., dependent or relying upon one's own efforts or merits apart from the grace of God.

1596 Norden Progr. Pietie (1847) 28 A slumber which procureth many drowsy dreams of *self-ability to wade through all adverse things of the world. 1626 Laud Serm. 5th July 32 No deserting the cause though no selfe-ability could hold it vp.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. 301 The other loud-resounded Heart-wanting Hymns, on *self-deserving founded.

1668 H. More Div. Dial. i. xxix. I. 119 By *Self-disunity I understand nothing else but that Matter has no Vinculum of its own to hold it together.

1660 N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. (1682) 217 Check the first Relishes of *self-excellency which you find in your Souls.

1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. (ed. 2) 254 Their pitiful old *self-holiness.

1858 Bushnell Nat. & Supernat. iv. (1864) 95 A soul..acting by its own free *self-impulsion.

1867 G. Easton Autobiogr. vii. 81 Never had I felt such a deep sense of *self-insignificance.

1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xvi. (1647) 169 A Vacuity, Indigence, and *selfe-insufficiency of the Soule.

1745 E. Haywood Fem. Spect. x. (1748) II. 162 Vanity, and a high opinion of *self-merit, sometimes renders one party easy and contented.

1773 J. Berridge Wks. (1864) 182 Self-will, *self-potence, and self-righteousness.

a 1688 R. Cudworth Treat. Freewill (1838) 62 God Almighty could not make such a rational creature as this is..which had no *self-power, no hegemonic or ruling principle. 1896 W. James Let. 24 July (1920) II. 41 Full of swelling and bursting Weltschmerz and religious melancholy, yet no more flexibility or self-power in his mind than in a boot-jack. 1964 E. Becker in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 123 This is the basic phenomenology of alienations: the failure to develop self-powers by transacting with the world of things.

1668 Owen Expos. 130th Ps. 380 The..infinite *self-purity of this Eternal Immense Being.

1701 Norris Ideal World i. i. 7 Any *self-stability, aseity, or essential immutability of its own.

1656 Owen Mortif. Sin i. (1668) 5 Mortification from a *self-strength, carried on..unto the End of a self-Righteousness.

1880 G. M. Hopkins Sermons & Devotional Writings (1959) 125 Above all my shame, my guilt, my fate are the very things in feeling, in tasting, which I most taste that *selftaste which nothing in the world can match.

1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. ii. ix, Indispers'd, quick, close with *selfe-union.

1668 ― Div. Dial. i. xxx. I. 124 By the *Self-unity of a Spirit I understand a Spirit to be immediately and essentially one.

1633 Ford Broken H. i. i, So much out of a *selfe-vnworthinesse, His feares transport him.

1959 Guardian 28 Aug. 4/3, I did meet Colin Wilson, and..I found that with him I received my sense of my *self-value in its fullness.

a 1631 Donne Poems (1669) 86 My *self-want of sight.

1944 Horizon Feb. 104 The feeling of *self-worth experienced by contented individualists. 1978 M. Puzo Fools Die xlvii. 501 The lack of self-worth, the desire to please someone that they thought really cared about them.

1639 W. Sclater Worthy Commun. 14 We must lay by all thoughts of honour, of place, of all kind of *selfe-worthinesse.

a 1889 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 101 *Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours.

  c. = having an independent existence, position, or authority; † pristine, original.

1839 E. A. Poe William Wilson Wks. 1864 I. 434 Natural rights of *self-agency.

1657 Heylin Hist. Ref. I. ii. §5. 84 The Clergy of this Realm had a *Self-authority in all matters which concerned Religion.

1629 W. Sclater Expos. 2 Thess. 169 Are Churches, Councels, Popes Authentique, of *selfe credit?

1643 Ld. Digby Obs. Relig. Med. 34 Hee being in his proper nature *Selfe-Entity, all being must immediately flow from him.

1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. 1327 *Self-Eternitie, Infinite, All in all, yet out of all.

1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. viii. 125, I dare follow none of the Moderne erroniously transcribing Relaters..but haue..tooke it from the best *selfe-fountaines.

1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. lxiii, Thou *self-Idea of all joyes to come.

c 1616 Fletcher Thierry & Theod. i. i, A *selfe-peece from the touch of power and Iustice.

1905 Athenæum 1 Apr. 396/3 The full *self-sovereignty of Japan.

  d. = having self as the object or aim; self-centred.

1654 Whitlock Zootomia 367 This thread of *Self-aime runnes through the whole Peece of what men do.

1687 Norris Coll. Misc. 262 Neither does he [God] govern the Rational part of it by the Precepts of Religion out of any *Self-design, as if he feasted his nostrils with the perfumes of the Altar.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems Addit. 35 Save me, God! from *Self-desire. 1841 Gladstone in Morley Life (1903) I. 233 Men hurrying this way and that for gold, or pleasure, or some self-desire.

1621 Bargrave Serm. agst. Selfe Policy (1624) 28 This wicked sibi, this *selfe-doctrine.

1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric., Digest 4 Nor was actuated by any other motive than *Self-Emolument.

1587 Golding De Mornay xvi. (1592) 257 What else is the whole societie of man..but a *self-gaine?

1624 Bargrave (title) A Sermon against *Selfe Policy, preached at White-Hall in Lent. 1621.

1654 Whitlock Zootomia 177 The Ratio formalis, essentiall of a Suist, or *selfe-polititian.

1832 Tennyson Œnone 156 Unbias'd by *self-profit.

  e. = caused by oneself, of one's own making.
  This use is rare; the mod. examples are due to analysis of compounds illustrated under 2; e.g. self-chain from ‘self-chained’.

1652 Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro To C'tess Denbigh, Fetter'd, & lockt up fast they ly In a sad *selfe-captivity.

1882 Rossetti Poems (1904) 262/2 Who from thy *self-chain shall set thee free?

1845 E. Warburton Crescent & Cross II. 163 The *self-outlaws of humanity.

  
  
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   Add: [3.] [a.] (Examples of self-dual.)

1910 Veblen & Young Projective Geom. I. i. 28 The point and plane are said to be dual elements; the line is *self-dual. 1955 W. Pauli Niels Bohr 47 The self-dual tensor with (n,m) = (2,0) or (0,2) , and the symmetric tensor with trace zero (2,2) remains invariant like the scalar (0,0). 1986 P. C. West Introd. Supersymmetry & Supergravity xii. 73 Aij and Bij..are real antisymmetric self-dual tensors of rank two.

  
  
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   ▸ self-promoter n.

1923 G. B. Clarkson Industr. Amer. in World War iv. 68 Baruch, though ardently ambitious to participate in the world of effort, is not a good *self-promoter. 1996 C. J. Stone Fierce Dancing xii. 189 Self-promoters and petty dictators concerned only with their own image and not with the needs of those around them.

  
  
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   ▸ self-promotion n.

1653 E. Hall Η{nfasper} ἀποστασία ὁ ἀντίχριστος iii. iii. 94 He exalts himself and magnifies himself;..*self-promotion is his end, that he may be mighty in the eyes of the world; he makes himselfe god. 1726 P. Fiske Good Subject's Wish 22 Self Promotion is very displeasing to God, who..would have no man rush into his Service or run of his Errand before he is sent. 1848 Southern Lit. Messenger 14 469/2 He aided them in..forwarding their schemes of self-interest and self-promotion. 1991 S. J. Gould Bully for Brontosaurus xxiv. 350 Lavoisier, no shrinking violet in the game of self-promotion, openly spoke of his new chemistry as ‘a revolution’.

  
  
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   ▸ self-promoting adj.

1662 T. Fuller Worthies 72 Wat was woundly angry with Sir John..for..not making his appoaches mannerly enough unto him; Oh the pride of a *self-promoting Pesant! 1767 T. Underwood Snarlers 20 At this he starts..attacking Foes and Friends, With Self-promoting Interest in View, He mangles all Respect. 1860 F. D. Huntington Christian Believing & Living viii. 250 Salvation is not a thrifty, self-promoting concern, by which we just graze and enter the gates of Eden. 1988 M. Bishop Unicorn Mountain (1989) iii. 29 You too can cut a figure like the fatally sick sleazeball you see outfitted in our self-promoting jersey.

  
  
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   ▸ self-publicist n.

1934 Los Angeles Times 7 May ii. 4/6 Huey Long is falling down these days as a *self-publicist. He's saying so many things which can't be printed. 2001 Financial Times 27 Jan. 14/6 He is a consummate self-publicist.