phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Self-defeating

Posted by TheFallen on October 21, 2004

In Reply to: Self-defeating posted by DH on October 21, 2004

: Thank you guys, but self-defeating isn't a word, while "nugatory" doesn't fit at all. Have we discovered another one of those concepts for which there's no "proper" English word so we must resort to slang.

Agreed about "nugatory", which I have always understood to mean "trivial" to the degree of annoyance. Disagreed about "self-defeating" - it's a perfectly good, allowable and easily understood construct - cf. self-fulfilling, self-sustaining and a thousand others.

As to a single word for the concept, one might consider "vain" or even "doomed".

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.