seeksorrow

plural seeksorrows · alternative seek-sorrow

1. A person who acts to their own detriment, contriving to give themselves vexation; a self-tormentor.

   I do not think you are a seeksorrow, giving yourself comfort in vexation.

   2011, Jeanne McElvaney, Old Maggie's Spirit Whispers, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 21

   2 more examples

   In a bicentennial comment for Newsweek, he took issue with those who played the role of Seeksorrow. The Yale literary magazine had written him asking if he thought things were going to get worse […]

   2002, Scott Donaldson, 9781463430856, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 301

   When my parents drove us up to Stratford, Ontario, to see a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the word seeksorrow leapt out at me from the stage, and I've loved it ever since.

   2010, Phil Cousineau, Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words, Cleis Press, →ISBN, page xvii