self-destructive

[ self-di-struhk-tiv, self- ]

adjective

1. harmful, injurious, or destructive to oneself:

   His constant arguing with the boss shows he's a self-destructive person.

2. reflecting or exhibiting suicidal desires or drives:

   Careless driving may be a self-destructive tendency.

Other Words From

• self-de·structive·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-destructive¹

First recorded in 1645–55

Example Sentences

Anger often manifests in withholders as another self-destructive but more socially acceptable feeling or behavior, like anxiety.

From The Daily Beast

To break her self-destructive cycle and heal, she decides to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail solo.

From The Daily Beast

So they do what they are told to do, even when the path is self-destructive.

From The Daily Beast

Norquist did, though, candidly note that, “there are outliers always willing to give a self-destructive quotation.”

From The Daily Beast

Indeed, if this was self-destructive, then provoking another stand-off—during an election year, no less—would be suicidal.

From The Daily Beast

This type of battery is very rugged, and its combinations are not self-destructive.

From Project Gutenberg

Hold the Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive!

From Project Gutenberg

When we contemplate such arrangements as exist in these two guns, it must be evident that they are both self-destructive.

From Project Gutenberg

A thing self-created, self-destructive: then of human life––nothingness.

From Project Gutenberg

It had been to her what its sting is to the bee—a thing which if once used in self-defence is self-destructive.

From Project Gutenberg