Dictionary

self-defeating en · ADJ

Etymology

From self- + defeating (present participle of defeat).

Meanings

1. (of a plan, qualifier:action) Containing elements that will cause it to fail; destined not to succeed by its very nature.
   • Cutting off your nose to spite your face is self-defeating.
   • General reading readiness is assessed by tests and is also estimated by teachers who are often skillful at discerning just when a pupil is ready to learn to read. The important thing to remember is that jumping the gun is usually self-defeating. 1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 24:
   • The strike will win few friends as the capital tries to woo commuters and shoppers back after the pandemic. And the fewer the people using the Tube, the lower the fare revenue. The lower the fare revenue, the sterner the job cuts could be. Many people therefore see the industrial action as self-defeating. 2022 March 23, Paul Clifton, “Londoners pay the price”, in RAIL, number 953, page 49:
   • [...] to make commuter operations profitable, a 70 per cent fare rise would be necessary. The president admitted that an increase of this magnitude would be self-defeating and suggested that the commuter himself should not have to bear the whole burden because the service was not exclusively for his benefit, but largely for that of the community concerned. 1960 April, “Talking of Trains: The U.S. commuter problem”, in Trains Illustrated, page 201:

Forms

Deriveds

self-defeating personality disorder · self-defeating prophecy

Synonyms

cutting off one's nose to spite one's face