self-gratification
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of self-gratification
First recorded in 1670–80
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.
Crucially, these collected lyrics aren’t an exercise in self-gratification; Sondheim is insightful and unsparing about his own mistakes, even the ones that only he is smart enough to see.
From Slate • Nov. 18, 2019
It will examine the pathology of power in the service of self-gratification and self-protection — from the law and from accountability.
From New York Times • Sep. 2, 2019
“There’s a lot of self-gratification in helping people. I can’t believe people send us thank-you notes for something we get paid to do.”
From Washington Times • Feb. 6, 2017
When you visit a farm-to-table restaurant and order the wild-nettle sformato for thirty dollars, the line between social consciousness and self-gratification disappears.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 24, 2016
At bottom it would still be a struggle for individual ends, albeit ennobled individual ends; for self-gratification and self-realization against external difficulty and internal weakness.
From New Worlds For Old A Plain Account of Modern Socialism by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
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.
