释义 |
self-ˈcentred, ppl. a. [self- 3 a.] 1. Fixed or stationary, as a centre round which other things move.
1676Dryden State Innoc. ii. i. (1677) 12 There hangs the ball of Earth and Water mixt, Self-Center'd, and unmov'd. 1687Norris Coll. Misc. 84 He is one unmov'd self-center'd Point of Rest. 1737Pope Hor. Ep. i. vi. 6 Self-center'd Sun. 1872Browning Fifine lxxx. 11 Your steadying touch of hand Assists me to remain self-centred, fixed amid All on the move. 2. Of persons, their activities, etc.: Centred in oneself (or itself); independent of external action or influence.
a1764Lloyd Whim Poet. Wks. 1774 II. 166 Genius self-center'd feels alone That merit he esteems his own. 1828Sewell Oxford Prize Ess. 43 Self-centred circles of commercial employments, professions, and amusements. 1877E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. 15 The self-centred life that makes itself independent of everything but the individuality in which it is imprisoned. 1895Zangwill Master iii. viii, He would be fixed at last, swinging steadily on a pivot of happiness... Now at last he would be self-centred. b. In an unfavourable sense, passing into that of: Engrossed in self, selfishly independent.
1783Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 20 Nov., A stubborn sufficiency self-centered. 1873Morley Rousseau I. 126 He was both too self-centred and too passionate for warm ease and fulness of life in all things, to be truly sympathetic [etc.]. 1884W. H. White Mark Rutherford's Deliv. vii. (1892) 97 That self-centred satisfaction which makes life tolerable. Hence self-ˈcentredness.
1891F. Paget Spirit of Discipline iii. 98 The absurdity of self-centredness and self-advertisement. 1894Athenæum 21 July 94/2 With nearly as strong a belief as his master's in the self-centredness of man. |