self-abnegation
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of self-abnegation
First recorded in 1650–60
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.
On the contrary, sometimes it unfolds out of the public eye; self-abnegation can be a reliable marker of character.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Where did this self-abnegation begin, and why does it persist?
From Slate ● Mar. 23, 2025
But whatever it is that propelled Johns down the path of self-abnegation, the denial was never absolute or complete.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2021
But her self-abnegation, far from enabling her work, frustrates the fulfillment of her artistic potential, turning her books into lifeless “intellectual exercises.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 13, 2019
True love "is a condition of wishing well to all men, such as commonly characterizes children but is produced in grown men only by self-abnegation."
From Anarchism by Paul Eltzbacher
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.
