self-seeking

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self-seek·ing

(sĕlf′sē′kĭng)

adj.

1. Pursuing only one's own ends or interests.

2. Exhibiting concern only with promoting one's own ends or interests: self-seeking maneuvers.

Determined pursuit of one's own ends or interests.

self′-seek′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

self-seeking

the act or an instance of seeking one's own profit or interest, esp exclusively

adj

having or showing an exclusive preoccupation with one's own profit or interest: a self-seeking attitude.

ˌself-ˈseeker n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

self′-seek′ing

1. the seeking of one's own interest or selfish ends.

adj.

2. given to or characterized by self-seeking; selfish.

[1580–90]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	self-seeking - taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others opportunism, self-interest, expedience selfishness - stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others
Adj.	1.	self-seeking - interested only in yourself self-serving selfish - concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others; "Selfish men were...trying to make capital for themselves out of the sacred cause of civil rights"- Maria Weston Chapman

self-seeking

adjective selfish, self-interested, mercenary, calculating, opportunistic, self-serving, acquisitive, on the make (slang), careerist, gold-digging, fortune-hunting, looking out for number one (informal), out for what you can get Politicians are untrustworthy self-seeking creatures.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

self-seeking

adjective

Concerned only with oneself:

egocentric, egoistic, egoistical, egomaniacal, egotistic, egotistical, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-involved, selfish, self-serving.

Idiom: wrapped up in oneself.

Translations

self-seeking

[ˌselfˈsiːkɪŋ]

A. ADJ → egoísta

B. N → egoísmo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

self-seeking

[ˈsɛlfˈsiːkɪŋ]

1. adj → egoista

2. n → egoismo

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

He had the power to charm or frighten rudi- mentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor; he could also fill the small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings: he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self-seeking. No; I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him.

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It is difficult to retain the memory of the conflicts, miseries, temptations and crimes of men's self-seeking existence when one is alone with the charming serenity of the unconscious nature.

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Let this man be tried by a temptation which insidiously calls into action, in his own interests, the savage instincts latent in humanity--the instincts of self-seeking and cruelty which are at the bottom of all crime.

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Sustaining and constructive forces did indeed for a time more than balance the malign drift of chance and the natural ignorance, prejudice, blind passion, and,wasteful self-seeking of mankind.

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Out of the decay of self-seeking capitalism, it was held, would arise that flower of the ages, the Brotherhood of Man.

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And he suffered enough from brazenly meddlesome and self-seeking folk, from impudent and inquisitive intruders, to justify some suspicion of old acquaintances suddenly styling themselves old friends, and of distant connections newly and unduly eager to claim relationship.

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"Of course," continued the unwitting Clare, "I should have been glad to know you to be descended exclusively from the long-suffering, dumb, unrecorded rank and file of the English nation, and not from the self-seeking few who made themselves powerful at the expense of the rest.

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In humouring my mistake, Miss Havisham, you punished - practised on - perhaps you will supply whatever term expresses your intention, without offence - your self-seeking relations?"

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For I feel it, I feel it--infinite love is suffering too--yea, in the fulness of knowledge it suffers, it yearns, it mourns; and that is a blind self-seeking which wants to be freed from the sorrow wherewith the whole creation groaneth and travaileth.

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Nothing is more truly characteristic of him than the famous incident of his rushing in tears from the room in which he had been writing of the death of Colonel Newcome with the exclamation, 'I have killed the Colonel!' In his books as clearly as in those of the most explicit moralizer the reader finds the lessons that simple courage, honesty, kindliness, and unselfishness are far better than external show, and that in spite of all its brilliant interest a career of unprincipled self-seeking like that of Becky Sharp is morally squalid.

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Always at the time when my heart opened most tenderly toward her and toward others--when my mind was most free from the bitter doubts, the self-seeking aspirations, which degrade the divinity within us.

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Through a touch of self-seeking that modest artist of solid merit became untrue to his temperament.