masochistic

[mas-uh-kis-tik, maz‑]

adjective

1. Psychiatry.,  having a condition in which sexual gratification depends on suffering, physical pain, and humiliation.

2. gratified by pain, degradation, deprivation, etc., inflicted on oneself either by one's own actions or the actions of others.

3. tending to be self-destructive.

4. tending to find pleasure in self-denial, submissiveness, degradation, etc.

Other Word Forms

• masochistically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of masochistic¹

masoch(ism) + -istic

Example Sentences

And he has excellent material in Prefontaine: The runner’s mane of long hair and Hollywood looks made him a crowd-pleaser; his borderline masochistic drive made him a winner.

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I must admit that I, too, was not masochistic enough to read it.

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That was important to us, is that she’d still be funny or have that sense of humor, like that’s her masochistic side.

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I know it sounds crazy, but we actors are kind of masochistic.

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This frenzied devotion to freedom in its most perverted form, a kind of Promethean exultation in unbridled will and desire, sits in weird juxtaposition with a cultish, masochistic worship of leader figures.

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