self-satisfied
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of self-satisfied
First recorded in 1725–35
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.
The solid, stolid, self-satisfied Edwardian England that had seemed so deserving of his lashes was itself now wounded, and something in Galsworthy shifted accordingly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
He’s self-satisfied and loves to have people fawn over him, but his star is still nascent enough for Oliver to retain some naivete.
From Salon • Aug. 26, 2025
Several of the figures rest a self-satisfied hand at the apex of their bump.
From Slate • Jul. 21, 2025
My sermon — which I would deliver sloppily in the smoking section at parties, annoyingly self-satisfied and convinced that I had figured it all out — became this: If you’re cool now, you’re cool forever.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2025
A few months earlier, on the first day of sixth grade, Carol Horning came into class wearing a slight but unmistakably self-satisfied smile.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
