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To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily, selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use up; to waste; to annihilate. Famine and pestilence shall devour him. Ezek. vii. 15. I waste my life and do my days devour. Spenser.

Not influenced by regard to personal interest or advantage; free from selfish motive; having no relation of interest or feeling; not biased or prejudiced; as, a disinterested decision or judge. The happiness of disinterested sacrifices. Channing.

Unfriendly to society; contracted; selfish; as, dissocial feelings.

and thought of self; the habit of regarding one's self as the center of every interest; selfishness; -- opposed to altruism.

Pertaining to elves; implike; mischievous; weird; also, vacant; absent in demeanor. See Elfish. He seemeth elvish by his countenance. Chaucer.

o become unmindful of one's own personality; to be lost in thought. (b) To be entirely unselfish. (c) To be guilty of what is unworthy of one; to lose one's dignity, temper, or self-control.

The quality of being greedy; vehement and selfish desire. Fox in stealth, wolf in greediness. Shak.

elf; the individual disposition and character; as, a good, tender, loving, bad, hard, or selfish heart. Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain. Emerson.

The qualities characteristic of a hero, as courage, bravery, fortitude, unselfishness, etc.; the display of such qualities. Heroism is the self-devotion of genius manifesting itself in action. Hare.

Hoggish character or manners; selfishness; greed; beastliness. Crime and shame And all their hoggery. Mrs. Browning.

Swinish; gluttonous; filthy; selfish. -- Hog"gish*ly, adv. -- Hog"gish*ness, n. Is not a hoggish life the height of some men's wishes Shaftesbury.

vetous, sordid man; a miser; a niggard. Pray make your bargain with all the prudence and selfishness of an old hunks. Gray.

e is a new incarnation of some of the illustrious dead. Jeffrey. The very incarnation of selfishness. F. W. Robertson.

r unfavorable; as, a love of pleasure indisposes the mind to severe study; the pride and selfishness of men indispose them to religious duties. The king was sufficiently indisposed towards the persons, or the principles, of Calvin's disciples. Clarendon.

An excessive or exclusive regard to one's personal interest; self- interest; selfishness. The selfishness of the small proprietor has been described by the best writers as individualism. Ed. Rev.

re, etc.: to give free course to; to give one's self up to; as, to indulge sloth, pride, selfishness, or inclinations; (b) when said of a person: to yield to the desire of; to gratify by compliance; to humor; to withhold restraint from; as, to indulge children in their caprices or willfulness; to indulge one's self wit…

Advantage, personal or general; good, regarded as a selfish benefit; profit; benefit. Divisions hinder the common interest and public good. Sir W. Temple. When interest calls of all her sneaking train. Pope.

The state or quality of being interested; selfishness. Richardson.

It denotes relation, resemblance, similarity, and sometimes has a diminutive force; as, selfish, boyish, brutish; whitish, somewhat white.

to strike violently. [Obs. or Archaic] -- To lay one's self out, to strive earnestly. No selfish man will be concerned to lay out himself for the good of his country. Smalridge. -- To lay one's self open to, to expose one's self to, as to an accusation. -- To lay open, to open; to uncover; to expose; to reveal. -- To…