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
• Self-doubt in the West will lead to self-defeating decisions.
  — Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Foreign Affairs, 11 Jan. 2024
• Many adults, Gaines believes, are plagued by their self-defeating thoughts.
  — Anna Halkidis, Parents, 8 June 2024
• Rich and Andrew agreed that a line for the bathroom is a self-defeating cycle on airplanes.
  — Zach Wichter, USA TODAY, 13 Nov. 2024
• But sometimes the optics make the self-defeating nature of the task clearer than others.
  — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2025
• Look to the self-defeating machinations of Merrick Garland and Jack Smith.
  — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 20 July 2024
• As the moon and Pluto clash, self-defeating beliefs prevent you from making progress.
  — USA TODAY, 13 June 2023
• 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
• 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
• His participation in The Jinx seems to follow the same strange, self-defeating pattern.
  — Ester Bloom, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024
• Jose said that would create a self-defeating pattern and urged him to reconsider.
  — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2024
• 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
• 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
• 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
• This position is, among many other things, a somewhat self-defeating one.
  — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2023
• 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
• Explaining its brilliance beyond that feels futile at best and self-defeating at worst.
  — Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024
• 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
• But will self-defeating emotional patterns block their growth?
  — Usa Today, USA Today, 18 June 2025
• 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
• The obstacle was the self-defeating thoughts that dominated her mind and eroded her confidence.
  — Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2023
• 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
• Being coherent means adding up to one clear signal, rather than acting in confusing, self-defeating ways.
  — Ginny Whitelaw, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
• However, self-defeating rules that alter the game’s brand should always be discouraged.
  — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 23 Dec. 2024
• 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
• And so Republicans will embark on a silly, self-defeating impeachment that is certain to fail.
  — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 14 Sep. 2023
• 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
• His eldest, under achieving, self-defeating Nick (James Norton) is in the process of torpedoing his own engagement.
  — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 25 Nov. 2024
• 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
• While nothing gets a marketer’s heart racing like the quixotic desire to overcome scarcity, the vanishing dollar demos should discourage this kind of self-defeating strategy.
  — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 11 July 2025