Definition of self-serving in US English:
self-serving
adjectiveˈˌsɛlf ˈsərvɪŋˈˌself ˈsərviNG
Having concern for one's own welfare and interests before those of others.
public accountability is replaced by self-serving propaganda
Example sentencesExamples
- We will be spared the horrors of greedy, selfish and self-serving individuals who trample over people so that they can get a million dollars.
- There are too few facts and too much self-serving fiction.
- That is so self-serving and selfish in my opinion, so that's the last thing I want to do.
- Of course it doesn't help that a lot of conceptual art is devoid of substance and that those cards are mostly self-serving inane twaddle, but the principle is there.
- Though critics of Clarke have charged him with self-serving theatricality, he looked and sounded absolutely sincere to me.
- Fisher's attitude was emblematic of the insular and self-serving culture that has dominated the general committee for decades.
- The union had no room for self-serving demagogues.
- We want to change the system so that the selfish and self-serving villains don't feel the need to harm others.
- The campaign to put a spoke in the wheels of efforts to clean up the customs service has descended to the level of self-serving media manipulation.
- How can you be confident of the self-serving agenda of an agent?
- Regrettably, the debate is so laden with emotions and self-serving arguments that the facts are often overlooked.
- Years of benign neglect on the part of her parents are followed by an intense self-serving attention that masquerades as love.
- She turns on her own staff to make a selfish, self-serving deal behind closed doors that later gets revealed.
- Instead, debate is often overwhelmed by superstition, folk wisdom, prejudice and self-serving agendas.
- Could it be the posthumous public pronouncements were really only shameless self-serving exaggerations?
- The man's principal talent is for spinning self-serving tales.
- The public had seen ‘nothing more than a self-serving determination to protect their vested interests’.
- The production in India was more self-serving than anything else.
- If we act in a purely selfish, self-serving manner, then the future fruition of that action will be negative.
- Why did many left-liberals regard him as a self-serving betrayer of their principles?
nounˈˌsɛlf ˈsərvɪŋˈˌself ˈsərviNG
Concern for oneself before others.
Example sentencesExamples
- The most frustrating part of the debate is the obvious self-serving of some of the people concerned.