self-abnegation
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of self-abnegation
First recorded in 1650–60
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.
On the contrary, sometimes it unfolds out of the public eye; self-abnegation can be a reliable marker of character.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026
Many performers practice public self-abnegation about their talent.
From Washington Post • May 11, 2021
The close third-person narration of the novel gives readers intimate access to Marianne’s pain and self-abnegation, but some of this gets lost in adaptation.
From Slate • Apr. 24, 2020
But her self-abnegation, far from enabling her work, frustrates the fulfillment of her artistic potential, turning her books into lifeless “intellectual exercises.”
From The New Yorker • Nov. 13, 2019
She was not gifted with that altruism which enables one to meet a great crisis with the utter self-abnegation by which alone such crises are successfully overcome.
From The Bigamist by Young, F.E. Mills
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.
