self-serving
Americanadjective
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preoccupied with one's own interests, often disregarding the truth or the interests, well-being, etc., of others.
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serving to further one's own selfish interests.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of self-serving
First recorded in 1900–05
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.
As a 25-year high-school math teacher in Alameda, Calif., I’ve listened to all the specious, spurious, self-serving excuses for denying students and families educational choice.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
Rodgers resigned in late October amid accusations from major shareholder Dermot Desmond of "divisive, misleading, and self-serving" behaviour.
From BBC • Jan. 2, 2026
But his pitting of empathy in direct opposition to that clarity about our limitations is self-serving and, let’s be real, the kind of man-child narcissism currently being celebrated as strength.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 27, 2025
Traditional universities, he believed, had become too expensive, exclusive and self-serving.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 26, 2025
A more evil, vicious, and self-serving man could hardly be imagined, wrote Esperanza on the next line.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
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.
