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self-preservation

[ self-prez-er-vey-shuhn, self- ]

noun

  1. preservation of oneself from harm or destruction.


self-preservation

noun

  1. the preservation of oneself from danger or injury, esp as a basic instinct
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Other Words From

  • self-pre·serving adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of self-preservation1

First recorded in 1605–15
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Example Sentences

The cynical will note that fundamentalist charismatics do have some sense of self-preservation.

One motivation for Republicans might be self-preservation alone.

Traditionally, people who make their living giving and taking punches have not paid much heed to the law of self-preservation.

Could Jagger and the Stones pull off a similar feat of reinvention and self-preservation?

But I can't picture Bush or Obama telling such a lie for pure self-preservation reasons.

Like a hurt animal, half crawling, knowing only the base instinct of self preservation, he tried for that delivery alleyway.

Self-interest and self-preservation dictated many laws which secured the welfare of society.

They are made from the instinct of self-preservation, from patriotic aspirations, from the necessities of civilization.

But Brodrick's family, by the sheer instinct of self-preservation, was awake to everything that concerned it.

She was still an unknown and uncharted land to him, to which at times the instinct of self-preservation blindly inclined him.

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self-praiseself-pride