Meanings
comparative more self-respecting · superlative most self-respecting
- Having self-respect; having pride or knowledge of one's own worth.
No self-respecting man would tolerate such an insult.
2 more examples
Now, when you awfulize you go beyond that and tell yourself, instead “It's horrible, awful and terrible!” You then mean several things, all of which are clearly unprovable and which any self-respecting Martian with an IQ of 100 could easily see through.
2010, Michael E. Bernard, Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Legacy of Albert EllisNot since a journalist morphed into Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate has a metamorphosis been so jarring. Of course, there were clues: Michael kicked a puppy in the very second episode, and no self-respecting Elysium so closely resembles a chichi outdoor mall in Pasadena.
2017 September 20, Sophie Gilbert, “The Good Place Is Still TV Heaven”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2018
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*swé?
- Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*selbaz
- Old Englishself
- Old Englishself-
- Middle Englishself-
- Englishself-
- Englishrespecting
- Englishself-respecting
From self- + respecting.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch zichzelf respecterend
- zichzelf respecterendhaving self-respect
Polish ambitny
- ambitnyhaving self-respect
Vietnamese tự trọng, tự tôn
- tự trọnghaving self-respect
- tự tônhaving self-respect
Cite this entry
self-respecting. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-respecting
“self-respecting.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-respecting. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-respecting,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-respecting.
Source: self-respecting on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.