self-immolation
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of self-immolation
First recorded in 1810–20
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.
Meanwhile, these reporters can’t help but do what they do, so in love with their jobs, they press on, smiling at their own self-immolation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
All this comes on the heels of some questionable behavior and ill-advised alliances, among them: the divorce from Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson, hanging around with Jeffrey Epstein, and the self-immolation by TV interview in 2019.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
Bouazizi’s self-immolation catalyzed the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia as well as a series of antigovernment uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East, often called the “Arab Spring.”
From Salon ● May 4, 2024
At the site of his self-immolation, her comments resonated with the visiting Chinese: “The predicament of a country can only be resolved by the people of that country themselves.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2024
Even from such a self-willed and contemptuously proud girl as she was, such an extremely frank avowal, such sacrifice, such self-immolation, seemed incredible.
From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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.
