Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Self-righteous \Self`-right"eous\, a. Righteous in one's own esteem; pharisaic.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
WordNet
adj. excessively or hypocritically pious; "a sickening sanctimonious smile" [syn: holier-than-thou, pietistic, pietistical, pharisaic, pharisaical, sanctimonious]
Usage examples of "self-righteous".
I hate those guys -- the self-righteous, hardworking, antisexist types who get all frothy over gender issues.
Again awake as the plane approached Baguio, I glimpsed the stark arrogant mountains tripping and falling among themselves, tumbling into the waiting, self-righteous valleys, and then the soft plateau resting above the gigantic disorder.
In his bluff way Carnot hated the self-righteous posturing of the cult of the Supreme Being and told Robespierre so in no uncertain terms.
The last came out in a somewhat self-righteous tone, considering the speaker, Carole thought, chiding herself.
Behaviourism itself, indeed, had been originally a kind of inverted Puritan faith, according to which intellectual salvation involved acceptance of a crude materialistic dogma, chiefly because it was repugnant to the self-righteous, and unintelligible to intellectuals of the earlier schools.
For an erstwhile traitor, this involved a spectacular metamorphosisfor increasingly Ozaki came to be seen as a true patriot, a man who loved his country in a deeper, more genuine way than all the self-righteous ultranationalists and superpatriots.
Ozaki came to be seen as a true patriot, a man who loved his country in a deeper, more genuine way than all the self-righteous ultranationalists and superpatriots.
The self-righteous hatred Yahweh promotes and which has led to so much religious persecution and so many wars in the past, is the very fuel by which he corrupts the human spirit.
Not the hoarse ballads or self-righteous folksongs that Selina sometimes had on last thingbut jazz, Opera, classical.
The Senders, on the other hand, are notorious for their ignorance of the nature and terminal state of sending, for barbarous and self-righteous manners, and for rabid fear of any fact --.
It may be said that the average Divisionist lives in a continual crisis of fear and rage, unable to achieve either the self-righteous complacency of the Senders or the relaxed depravity of the Liquefactionists.
In much of Light in August, the Christian religion is self-righteous and vindictive, and even racist and misogynist (antiwoman).
The blastulas were dubbed the 1-1-2041s, and everything about their lives became the subject of intense public scrutiny and fascination and self-righteous horror.
Besides, I liked the little man and it seemed to me all the types I didn't like would be sneering at us and saying self-righteous blatherings about the wages of sin.
The woman was detestably self-righteous and self-important, but a perfect treasure trove.