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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



64 words match “ELFISH”

ELFISH a.
elves; elflike; implike; weird; scarcely human; mischievous, as though caused by elves. "Elfish light." Coleridge. The elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy. Hawthorne.
ELFISHLY adv.
In an elfish manner.
ELFISHNESS n.
The quality of being elfish.
PELFISH a.
Of or pertaining to pelf. Stanyhurst.
SELFISH a. 2 definitions
e, of those of others. They judge of things according to their own private appetites and selfish passions. Cudworth. In that throng of selfish hearts untrue. Keble.
SELFISHLY adv.
In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.
SELFISHNESS n.
The quality or state of being selfish; exclusive regard to one's own interest or happiness; that supreme self-love or self- preference which leads a person to direct his purposes to the advancement of his own interest, power, or happiness, without regarding those of others. Selfishness,- a vice utterly at variance with…
ALTRUISM n.
moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; -- opposed to egoism or selfishness. [Recent] J. S. Mill.
ALTRUISTIC a.
Regardful of others; beneficent; unselfish; -- opposed to Ant: egoistic or Ant: selfish. Bain. -- Al`tru*is"tic*al*ly, adv.
BUNCOMBE; BUNKUM n.
for the gratification of constituents, or to gain public applause; flattering talk for a selfish purpose; anything said for mere show. [Cant or Slang, U.S.] All that flourish about right of search was bunkum -- all that brag about hanging your Canada sheriff was bunkum . . . slavery speeches are all bunkum. Haliburton.…
BY-END n.
Private end or interest; secret purpose; selfish advantage. [Written also bye-end.] "Profit or some other by-end." L'Estrange.
BY-VIEW n.
A private or selfish view; self-interested aim or purpose. No by-views of his own shall mislead him. Atterbury.
CABAL n.
ctices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. "Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly t…
CASHIER v.
put away or reject; to disregard. [R.] Connections formed for interest, and endeared By selfish views, [are] censured and cashiered. Cowper. They absolutely cashier the literal express sense of the words. Sowth.
CHURL n. 2 definitions
A selfish miser; an illiberal person; a niggard. Like to some rich churl hoarding up his pelf. Drayton.
CLOISTERED a.
isters; solitary. "Cloistered friars and vestal nuns." Hudibras. In cloistered state let selfish sages dwell, Proud that their heart is narrow as their cell. Shenstone.
CONTRACTED a.
Narrow; illiberal; selfish; as, a contracted mind; contracted views.
CONTRACTEDNESS n.
The state of being contracted; narrowness; meannes; selfishness.
COOL a.
propriety in matters of minor importance, either ignorantly or willfully; presuming and selfish; audacious; as, cool behavior. Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Hawthorne.
DENOMINATE v.
cterize by an epithet; to entitle; to name; to designate. Passions commonly denominating selfish. Hume.
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