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What is "self-contained"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
self-contained
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a self-contained flat (=a flat with its own kitchen and bathroom)
▪ We rented a self-contained flat in the city centre.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
flat
▪ We gave her a self-contained flat in the house.
▪ There are now 12 self-contained flats and a community room.
▪ Downstairs, as well as the self-contained flat, was another bedroom and bathroom and the kitchen.
unit
▪ The individual nation state is often therefore presented as a self-contained unit, analytically prior to its international relations.
▪ A closed loop is a self-contained unit that has no identifiable beginning or end, like a circle or an integrated circuit.
▪ The model 311 gas chromatograph is a self-contained unit with an isothermal oven, heated injector and detectors.
▪ We're a completely self-contained unit.
▪ Each was a self-contained unit capable of tackling most normal and special war-time contingencies of railway transport.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a self-contained heating unit
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A closed loop is a self-contained unit that has no identifiable beginning or end, like a circle or an integrated circuit.
▪ All that Mrs Browning required of her, surely, was that she should be docile and self-contained and grateful.
▪ As with any isolated and largely self-contained community the agricultural village was often the object of a fierce loyalty among its inhabitants.
▪ But his style was always to seem self-contained.
▪ It helps you see your points in one self-contained area.
▪ It too is a self-contained sys-tem yet open at the same time.
▪ Nor is the law as self-contained as social security law; many employment cases require a command of principles of contract law.
▪ The model 311 gas chromatograph is a self-contained unit with an isothermal oven, heated injector and detectors.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Self-contained

Self-contained \Self`-con*tained"\, a.

  1. Having self-control; reserved; uncommunicative; wholly engrossed in one's self.

  2. (Mach.) Having all the essential working parts connected by a bedplate or framework, or contained in a case, etc., so that mutual relations of the parts do not depend upon fastening outside of the machine itself. Self-contained steam engine.

    1. A steam engine having both bearings for the crank shaft attached to the frame of the engine.

    2. A steam engine and boiler combined and fastened together; a portable steam engine.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
self-contained

1590s, from self- + contained (see contain).

Wiktionary
self-contained

a. Not requiring external or additional support; complete in itself.

WordNet
self-contained

  1. adj. constituting a complete and independent unit in and of itself; "the university is like a self-contained city with shops and all amenities"

  2. in full control of your faculties; "the witness remained collected throughout the cross-examination"; "perfectly poised and sure of himself"; "more self-contained and more dependable than many of the early frontiersmen"; "strong and self-possessed in the face of trouble" [syn: collected, equanimous, poised, self-collected, self-possessed]

Usage examples of "self-contained".

The spirit regarding the herder in return was not patient, his stature restrained to a self-contained power that would stand down bared steel on a glance.

Behind the first closed door was a windowless office, almost bare but for a utilitarian desk on which stood a printer and small photocopier, and, against the wall, a self-contained video playback unit and a stack of tapes.

Has grown and grown, and with her mellow shade Has blanched my thornless thoughts to her own hue, And even now is budding into blossom, Which never shall bear fruit, but inward still Resorb its vital nectar, self-contained, And leave no living copies of its beauty To after ages.

With steady eyes surveyed the unbridled scene, Himself impassive, silent, self-contained: So sat the Indian prince, with brow unblanched, Amid the tortured and the torturers.

It made Beaux Reves a self-contained antebellum plantation, and at the same time, a kind of busy, diversified factory.

The alluring lady with the gaze of a Bengalese tiger was quite cognizant that she was under observation by the handsome, self-contained young man who stood opposite.

The sound came from every direction within the self-contained universe that was the Bololo archetype.

Perkins anticipated a blowout, but Fagin was remarkably self-contained.

Neither Hiro nor Eliot ever mentions, or even notices, the by-now-obvious fact that Fisheye is traveling with a small, self-contained nuclear power source - almost certainly radiothermal isotopes like the ones that power the Rat Thing.

Because of the danger of earthquakes in the region, Mojave Center had been designed and constructed as a self-contained, sealed unit.

He did share her self-contained expression, which Nez thought unusual in a child not so far distant from babyhood.

A small rectangle of blinking lights was mounted to one side of the control panela self-contained timekeeping device, the tricorder indicated, obviously designed for eyes different than his.

The home unit is self-contained, semiportable and not significantly bulkier than the standard TV receiver.

Their civilization grew to be totally isolationist and self-contained, and the citizens faced exile if they revealed anything about Shardana to outsiders.

To use the word body for aggregations of etheric or astral forces is legitimate if one considers the fact that the physical body also is really a purely dynamic entity, that is, a certain aggregate of forces more or less self-contained.