self-deceiving
Americanadjective
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subject to self-deception; tending to deceive or fool oneself.
a self-deceiving person.
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used in deceiving oneself, especially in justifying a false belief, a morally reprehensible act, or the like.
a self-deceiving argument.
Etymology
Origin of self-deceiving
First recorded in 1605–15
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.
And so, in a self-deceiving riposte, Mrs. Biden and her husband’s advisers repeated and repeated and repeated the exact opposite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Hampton Fluker plays George and Chinasa Ogbuagu plays Sue Bayliss, a neighbor with sharp opinions on the Keller family’s self-deceiving ways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2019
Yes, this abrasive man is annoyingly self-deceiving, yet Wallace allows you feel for him as Willy keeps coming up empty.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2017
For all that the genre liked to think of itself as exposing the dirty underbelly of American life, it showed a marked lack of insight when it came to its own self-deceiving misogyny.
From Slate ● May 3, 2017
A Western promoter had assured her that it was the opportunity of a lifetime, he himself being either an unconscionable fraud or a self-deceiving optimist.
From Nancy of Paradise Cottage by Watkins, Shirley
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.
