Synonyms for self-defeating
self-de·feat·ing

Princeton's WordNetRate this antonym:5.0 / 1 vote

1. self-defeatingadjective

   acting to defeat its own purpose

   "it is self-defeating...to ignore the progress of events"

   Antonyms:
   successful

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:2.0 / 1 vote

1. List of paraphrases for "self-defeating":

   counterproductive, counter-productive, self-destructive, defeatist

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How to use self-defeating in a sentence?

1. Jules Feiffer:

   I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. They told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary.

2. Robert M. Pursig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance":

   I think that their flight from and hatred of technology is self-defeating. The Buddha rests quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer of the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha--which is to demean oneself.

3. Daphne Oz:

   I think all moms are constantly juggling and are always running out of hours in the day, and our to-do lists are never checked off, and our inboxes are always overflowing, and it can feel really exhausting and self-defeating to see your to-do lists are never checked off, the reality is if you are being graded, which you are not… it’s OK if your grade fluctuates day to day. It’s OK if you’re an A mother today and a B employee and C wife and tomorrow all of those things change. I think it’s important for us to be a little bit more forgiving with ourselves and a little more forgiving with each other.

4. Warren Eller:

   The thing that you lose without a permit is if you're traveling between states, you no longer have the right to carry a firearm with you, it's self-defeating on two sides.

5. Benjamin Hooks:

   There are a lot of ways an oppressed people can rise. One way to rise is to study, to be smarter than your oppressor. The concept of rising against oppression through physical contact is stupid and self-defeating. It exalts brawn over brain. And the most enduring contributions made to civilization have not been made by brawn, they have been made by brain.