Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Self-preservation \Self`-pres`er*va"tion\, n. The preservation of one's self from destruction or injury.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1610s, from self- + preservation. First attested in Donne.
Wiktionary
n. The instinctive behaviour that protects oneself from harm.
WordNet
n. preservation of yourself from harm; a natural or instinctive tendency
Wikipedia
Self-preservation is a behavior that ensures the survival of an organism. It is almost universal among living organisms. Pain and fear are parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of adrenaline, which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing, smell, and sight. Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively; in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind (see: defence mechanism.)
Even the most simple of living organisms (for example, the single-celled bacteria) are typically under intense selective pressure to evolve a response to avoid a damaging environment, if such an environment exists. Organisms also evolve while adapting - even thriving - in a benign environment (for example, a marine sponge modifies its structure in response to current changes, in order to better absorb and process nutrients). Self-preservation is therefore an almost universal hallmark of life. However, when introduced to a novel threat, many species will have a self-preservation response either too specialised, or not specialised enough, to cope with that particular threat. An example is the dodo, which evolved in the absence of natural predators and hence lacked an appropriate, general self-preservation response to heavy predation by humans and rats, showing no fear of them.
Usage examples of "self-preservation".
War automata, possessing no instinct for self-preservation, designed for suicidal combat, would hardly be amenable to entering into any kind of negotiations with a cosmic intruder.
Self-preservation gave me the strength to push the door wide again and it caught the Blackshirt straight on, lifting the Sten and sending him spinning round, bullets spraying the air and busting the top windows of a nearby bus.
We are on board the labouring vessel of humanity in a storm, when cries and countercries ring out, disorderliness mixes the crew, and the fury of self-preservation divides: this one is for the ship, that one for his life.
Freddie Laplace, a skinny little guy with a highly developed sense of self-preservation, pointed down into a shell hole that was rapidly turning into a pond.
But if, as Raffles Haw held, there were few limits to the power of immense wealth, it possessed, among other things, the power of self-preservation, as one or two people were to learn to their cost.
And if I do not possess that talent, which your smiles prove to me you doubt, should I not still have that ardent love of independence, which will be a substitute for wealth, and which in my mind supersedes even the instinct of self-preservation?
He also viewed it as a means of self-preservation, thinking once he became a member of a team or fraternity, his inclusion in that elite clique would at the very least preclude him from being abused by outsiders.
The instinct of self-preservation vanished, then, as Buke softly laughed.
Holons display four fundamental capacities: self-preservation, self-adaptation, self-transcendence, and self-dissolution.
She needed time to consider this most unexpected development as her self-preservation programming loops began to run through several of her peripheral coprocessors, letting their presence be known.
The damnified person has this power of appropriating to himself the goods or service of the offender by right of self-preservation, as every man has a power to punish the crime to prevent its being committed again, by the right he has of preserving all mankind, and doing all reasonable things he can in order to that end.
Their dogmas and their morals were the same thing, it was only self-preservation.
Yes, Sharlotta realized then and there, her own self-preservation would depend upon her getting as far away from Gord Abrix and his sewer dwellers as possible, for there was no respect here, only abject hatred for Artemis Entreri and a genuine dislike for the dark elves.
It's the 'Braxian element in McDonald that's driving her on in the hope of uncovering some sensational story that's going to catapult her into the big-time, and it's beavering away inside us, sapping our moral courage and reinforcing our instincts for self-preservation.
Not only that, you would have a hard time learning them even if you had no fear of treason: the King of Kings will normally surround himself with spells that make divining his future as difficult as possible, in my judgment a sensible measure of self-preservation.