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Definition of "schizoid" [schizoid]

  • Of, relating to, or having a personality disorder marked by extreme shyness, flat affect, reclusiveness, discomfort with others, and an inability to form close relationships. (adjective)
  • Of, relating to, or suggestive of schizophrenia. No longer in scientific use. (adjective)
  • Informal Relating to or characterized by the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic elements: "This schizoid town is part resort, part sardine cannery” ( Jean Anderson). (adjective)
  • A schizoid person. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "schizoid" in a sentence
  • "However, he concluded, enforcement is likely to remain schizoid "until there is a reform of immigration law that is acceptable to the American people.""
  • "But Phil suggests more psychological factors are at play with those who indulge in schizoid identities:"
  • "The same impulses that others struggled with occasionally, but that could be controlled or concealed enough for them to function in everyday society, overwhelmed him much of his life, starting with that long-ago spring when he was hospitalized at age twenty-two for what experts today might classify as schizoid affective disorder."