self-justificatoryadj.
/ˌsɛlfˌdʒʌstᵻfᵻˈkeɪt(ə)ri/, /ˌsɛlfˌdʒʌˈstɪfᵻkət(ə)ri/, /ˌsɛlfˈdʒʌstᵻfᵻˌkeɪt(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfdʒəˈstɪfəkəˌtɔri/, /ˌsɛlfˈdʒəstəfəˌkeɪdəri/ Characterized by self-justification; that provides justification for itself.
ΚΠ
1817 T. J. Wooler Appeal to Citizens of London 7 The reply to all these arbitrary and self-justificatory statements, was the reiteration of the charge.
1857 A. Hall Life & Char. Rev. S. Hall ix. 346 These lines might have been penned with a self-justificatory reference to the criticisms passed upon his own writings.
1901 Classical Rev. July 328/2 It is just at the point at which customary religion becomes markedly self-conscious and self-justificatory that the student of savage beliefs comes to the end of his clues.
1958 Jrnl. Philos. 24 Apr. 370 The ethical rule is rational, necessary, and self-justificatory.
2002 A. K. Giri Conversat. & Transformations xi. 210 Embodiment of responsibility requires..going beyond the self-justificatory world of freedom itself.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1817- to come to handicuffs
- to come to hands
- to come to handstrokes
- to come to handy blows
- to come to heel
- to come to knowledge
- to come to land
- to come to life
- to come to light
- to come to light with
- to come to limerick
- to come to loggerheads
- to come to market
- to come to meal
- to come to meet
- to come to memory
- to come to memory again
- to come to mind
- to come to mischance
- to come to naught
- to come to nothing
- to come to nought
- to come to one purpose
- to come to one reckoning
- to come to one's hand