self-serving

[self-sur-ving]

adjective

1. preoccupied with one's own interests, often disregarding the truth or the interests, well-being, etc., of others.

2. serving to further one's own selfish interests.

self-serving

adjective

1. habitually seeking one's own advantage, esp at the expense of others

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-serving¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Democrats will have to decide what they trust more: the judgment of last year’s voters or the self-serving pieties of Mr. Smith.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

His deal offers are, of course, invariably one-sided and self-serving, but as he loses power, so too will he lose the capacity to make deals solely on his terms.

Read more on Salon

Firebrand newspaper proprietor and independent presidential candidate Ralph Volcere has used his weekly publication to denounce the priest-president as a self-serving autocrat – and has since been banished from State House press calls.

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But in an array of ways, he embodied the popular perception that skating away from destructive, self-serving behavior is something we should expect rich white boys to do.

Read more on Salon

"I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run," she wrote.

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Related Words

• boastful 
• pompous 
• self-absorbed 
• selfish 
• subjective