Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having achieved success or recognition by one's own efforts.
  • adjective Made by itself or oneself.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Made by one's self or itself.
  • Having attained success in life without extraneous advantages, especially without material aid from one's family: as, a self-made man.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Made by one's self.
  • adjective a man who has risen from poverty or obscurity by means of his own talents or energies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a person, having achieved success by one's own efforts.
  • adjective Of a thing, made by oneself instead of bought or taken over.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having achieved success or recognition by your own efforts

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

self- +‎ made

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Examples

Comments

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  • People would say of him excusingly that he was a self-made man, the inference being that almost anyone else would have made a better job of it. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.

    December 24, 2008