Search the Dictionary

Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

8 words match “SELF-INTEREST”

SELF-INTEREST n.
Private interest; the interest or advantage of one's self.
SELF-INTERESTED a.
Particularly concerned for one's own interest or happiness.
ATTACH v.
To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; -- with to; as, attached to a friend; attaching others to us by wealth or flattery. Incapable of attaching a sensible man. Miss Austen. God . . . by various ties attaches man to man. Cowper.…
BY-INTEREST n.
Self-interest; private advantage. Atterbury.
BY-VIEW n.
A private or selfish view; self-interested aim or purpose. No by-views of his own shall mislead him. Atterbury.
CYNIC; CYNICAL a.
disbelieving in the reality of any human purposes which are not suggested or directed by self-interest or self-indulgence; as, a cynical man who scoffs at pretensions of integrity; characterized by such opinions; as, cynical views of human nature.
EXPEDIENT a.
further or promote a proposed object; fit or proper under the circumstances; conducive to self-interest; desirable; advisable; advantageous; -- sometimes contradistinguished from right. It is expedient for you that I go away. John xvi. 7. Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expedie…
IDENTIFY v.
the same; to coalesce in interest, purpose, use, effect, etc. [Obs. or R.] An enlightened self-interest, which, when well understood, they tell us will identify with an interest more enlarged and public. Burke.