How to Use self-defeating in a Sentence
self-defeating
adjective-
You are stuck in a self-defeating cycle that isn’t going to change.
—Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2024
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Self-doubt in the West will lead to self-defeating decisions.
—Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Foreign Affairs, 11 Jan. 2024
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Many adults, Gaines believes, are plagued by their self-defeating thoughts.
—Anna Halkidis, Parents, 8 June 2024
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Rich and Andrew agreed that a line for the bathroom is a self-defeating cycle on airplanes.
—Zach Wichter, USA TODAY, 13 Nov. 2024
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But sometimes the optics make the self-defeating nature of the task clearer than others.
—Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2025
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Look to the self-defeating machinations of Merrick Garland and Jack Smith.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 20 July 2024
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As the moon and Pluto clash, self-defeating beliefs prevent you from making progress.
—USA TODAY, 13 June 2023
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For the United States, as the world’s biggest economy, and its second-largest exporter, that would be a self-defeating outcome.
—John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024
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These are people on a quixotic, self-defeating quest for excellence, building their skills in lockstep with the show.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 19 June 2023
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His participation in The Jinx seems to follow the same strange, self-defeating pattern.
—Ester Bloom, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024
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Jose said that would create a self-defeating pattern and urged him to reconsider.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2024
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But for Russia, this kind of ambitious, high-risk operation comes with a side of self-defeating hubris.
—Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2023
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Allies, too, might respond to a U.S. abandonment of the region in dangerous and self-defeating ways.
—Daniel Byman, Foreign Affairs, 12 Mar. 2024
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To cut off military aid to Ukraine now wouldn’t be a crime, but an incredibly self-defeating blunder.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 8 Dec. 2023
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This position is, among many other things, a somewhat self-defeating one.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2023
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Jon Hamm, April 12 Hamm, hosting for the fourth time, was spot-on with turns as a self-defeating game show contestant and a police officer obsessed with pizza.
—Omar L. Gallaga, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2025
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Explaining its brilliance beyond that feels futile at best and self-defeating at worst.
—Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024
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Online, Biden was a self-defeating candidate—able to attract a critical mass of attention, but only in the worst way.
—Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 21 July 2024
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But will self-defeating emotional patterns block their growth?
—Usa Today, USA Today, 18 June 2025
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The compassion in this new cut doesn’t undercut the many scenes of bad behavior, rock-star excess, self-defeating egotism, and descent into junkiedom.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Jan. 2024
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The obstacle was the self-defeating thoughts that dominated her mind and eroded her confidence.
—Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2023
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Sharpened in purpose by his criminal prosecutions and near death at the hands of a would-be assassin, Trump 47 would not be lost in a welter of self-defeating distractions the way Trump 45 had been.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 25 Apr. 2025
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Being coherent means adding up to one clear signal, rather than acting in confusing, self-defeating ways.
—Ginny Whitelaw, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
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However, self-defeating rules that alter the game’s brand should always be discouraged.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 23 Dec. 2024
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Within it, Strong created an icon of his own with his portrayal of the damaged and tragically self-defeating eldest son, Kendall Roy.
—David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2024
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And so Republicans will embark on a silly, self-defeating impeachment that is certain to fail.
—Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 14 Sep. 2023
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Russia has lost most of its major gas markets thanks to the self-defeating gambit of withholding energy shipments from Europe.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 30 Mar. 2023
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His eldest, under achieving, self-defeating Nick (James Norton) is in the process of torpedoing his own engagement.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 25 Nov. 2024
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The android, played by Alexander Skarsgård, is often fed up with humans and their illogical, self-defeating choices.
—Omar L. Gallaga, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2025
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Just one more way Trump’s self-defeating trade war is making China’s ambitions of economic dominance great again.
—William Pesek, Forbes.com, 15 Apr. 2025
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-defeating.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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