self-medication
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Crisps, chocolate bars and ice cream are identified as the culprits of this tendency, which the study viewed as "representing an early form of self-medication".
From Barron's • May 22, 2026
This includes reducing infections through better water, sanitation and hygiene, improving vaccine uptake, strengthening hospital infection control policies, educating physicians and deterring self-medication by patients.
From BBC • Dec. 4, 2024
Now that self-medication has been documented among several ape species, researchers theorize that such behaviors might have been part of the repertoire of the last common ancestors of human and apes.
From Science Magazine • May 1, 2024
There is also some evidence that ingesting faeces could be a form of self-medication to fight infections in birds, although more research is needed to confirm this theory.
From Science Daily • Mar. 12, 2024
The layman naturally adopted the theory and the motto of his medical advisers; hence in his self-medication and also under advice he consumes such vast quantities of purgative nostrums.
From Intestinal Ills Chronic Constipation, Indigestion, Autogenetic Poisons, Diarrhea, Piles, Etc. Also Auto-Infection, Auto-Intoxication, Anemia, Emaciation, Etc. Due to Proctitis and Colitis by Jamison, Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
