self-justifying
Americanadjective
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offering excuses for oneself, especially in excess of normal demands.
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automatically adjusting printed or typed lines to fill a given space, especially to conform to a rigid margin.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of self-justifying
First recorded in 1730–40
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.
That goes double for Clo’s self-loathing, self-justifying interior monologues.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
Speer’s reputation as a “good Nazi” was enhanced by his relentlessly self-justifying memoirs.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 24, 2025
“I am a loyal person,” Harris writes, which is not only self-justifying but has the slightly off-putting whiff of someone declaring, by golly, I’m just too honest.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2025
That might mean writing a self-justifying op-ed for the New York Times as an advance claim on future vindication.
From Washington Post • Sep. 16, 2018
I can’t look at her pitying, self-justifying face any longer.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
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.
