selfish — 1630s, from SELF (Cf. self) + ISH (Cf. ish). Said in Hacket s life of Archbishop Williams (1693) to have been coined by Presbyterians. In the 17c., synonyms included self seeking (1620s), self ended and self ful. Let us understand what our own… … Etymology dictionary
selfish — index illiberal, insatiable, mercenary, parsimonious, penurious, thoughtless Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 … Law dictionary
selfish — [adj] thinking only of oneself egocentric, egoistic, egoistical, egomaniacal, egotistic, egotistical, greedy*, hoggish*, mean, mercenary, miserly, narcissistic, narrow, narrowminded, out for number one*, parsimonious, prejudiced, self centered,… … New thesaurus
selfish — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ concerned chiefly with one s own personal profit or pleasure at the expense of consideration for others. DERIVATIVES selfishly adverb selfishness noun … English terms dictionary
selfish — [sel′fish] adj. 1. too much concerned with one s own welfare or interests and having little or no concern for others; self centered 2. showing or prompted by self interest selfishly adv. selfishness n … English World dictionary
selfish — adj. VERBS ▪ be, feel, seem, sound ▪ I know I m being selfish, but I can t help it. ▪ become ADVERB ▪ … Collocations dictionary
selfish — adj. selfish to + inf. (it was selfish of them to do that) * * * [ selfɪʃ] selfish to + inf. (it was selfish of them to do that) … Combinatory dictionary
selfish — adjective Date: 1640 1. concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself ; seeking or concentrating on one s own advantage, pleasure, or well being without regard for others 2. arising from concern with one s own welfare or advantage in… … New Collegiate Dictionary
selfish — [[t]se̱lfɪʃ[/t]] ADJ GRADED If you say that someone is selfish, you mean that he or she cares only about himself or herself, and not about other people. I think I ve been very selfish. I ve been mainly concerned with myself. ...the selfish… … English dictionary
selfish — self·ish sel fish adj being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function <selfish DNA> also being genetic material solely concerned with its own replication <selfish genes> … Medical dictionary
