self-satisfaction

[ self-sat-is-fak-shuhn ]

noun

1. a usually smug satisfaction with oneself, one's achievements, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-satisfaction¹

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

It would be a reflexive resort to ideological self-satisfaction.

From The Daily Beast

She does not, in this journal, exhibit the same sort of judgmental self-satisfaction that her female protagonists suffer from.

From The Daily Beast

Those who had received the actual drug reported better levels of self-satisfaction than the unfortunates who just got the placebo.

From The Daily Beast

Occasionally it crosses the line of self-satisfaction, as if to lament that the world is full of innumerate mouth-breathers.

From The Daily Beast

Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction.

From The Daily Beast

Thin face creased in a smile of self-satisfaction, he glanced at the paper he had bought.

From Project Gutenberg

The man with the monocle was smug with the self-satisfaction of his tribe.

From Project Gutenberg

At which my countenance beams with the shiny resplendency of self-satisfaction.

From Project Gutenberg

At the bottom of all he says about his foolhardiness in Dalmatia there lurks a proud self-satisfaction.

From Project Gutenberg

“Eberybody knows me so well—das one reason,” answered the negro, with a grin of self-satisfaction.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• complacency
• smugness