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Definition of "self-destructive" [self•-de•struc•tive]

  • Tending to do harm to oneself. (adjective)
  • Marked by an impulse or tendency to harm or kill oneself. (adjective)

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 "self-destructive" in a sentence
  • "The earlier books, which have just been reissued by Picador in one paperback volume as "The Patrick Melrose Novels," can be read as the navigational charts of a mariner desperate not to end up in the wretched harbor from which he embarked on a voyage that has led in and out of heroin addiction, alcoholism, marital infidelity and a range of behaviors for which the term "self-destructive" is the mildest of euphemisms."
  • "PARK CITY, Utah - If you watch "Californication," you know that Hank Moody is the definition of self-destructive."
  • "Forcing movements to the point of strain or pain is self-destructive, which is totally against the precept of Nonviolence, a basic ethic of Yoga practice."