self-dramatizing

American  

[self-dram-uh-tahy-zing, -drah-muh-, self-] / ˌsɛlfˈdræm əˌtaɪ zɪŋ, -ˈdrɑ mə-, ˈsɛlf- /

adjective

1. exaggerating one's own qualities, role, situation, etc., for dramatic effect or as an attention-getting device; presenting oneself dramatically.

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Other Word Forms

• self-dramatization noun

Etymology

Origin of self-dramatizing

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

But I was still shocked by Monday’s self-dramatizing use of their platform.

From Salon • Nov. 22, 2024

Katarina Joy Lopez takes on the most self-dramatizing of the characters, Austrian composer and author Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s former wife who later married Gropius in a tortured, ill-fated union.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2024

He describes how Brown’s self-dramatizing performance during his trial turned him into the inspiring popular martyr whose soul would mythically go marching on.

From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2020

This quality makes for a radically self-dramatizing conception of politics.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 13, 2019

Uplift winds up getting the better of “Don’t Worry,” in which Phoenix delivers an impressively committed performance that nonetheless can’t overcome the movie’s worship of Callahan’s most immature, solipsistic and self-dramatizing foibles.

From Washington Post • Jul. 18, 2018