Definitions

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

  • noun The act or an instance of charging oneself with a fault or mistake.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A reproaching or condemning of one's self; the reproach or censure of one's own conscience.

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

  • noun The act of reproaching one's self; censure by one's own conscience.

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

  • noun Blame or condemnation directed at the self, as by the conscience.

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

  • noun a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed)
  • noun the act of blaming yourself

Etymologies

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Examples

  • For Shirer, as his diaries show, the dilemma was a constant source of anxiety and self-reproach.

    A Talent for Being There Barton Swaim 2011

  • The National played a set at the Hollywood Bowl on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that made their signature subjects -- self-reproach, uncertainty, despair -- turn sublime.

    S.X. Rosenstock: The National at the Hollywood Bowl S.X. Rosenstock 2011

  • The National played a set at the Hollywood Bowl on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that made their signature subjects -- self-reproach, uncertainty, despair -- turn sublime.

    S.X. Rosenstock: The National at the Hollywood Bowl S.X. Rosenstock 2011

  • His account of these occasions is full of bitter self-reproach but also a helpless self-recognition – and the unsparingness of the professional writer.

    Our parents resented us 2011

  • Brandon sprawls semi-naked on blue sheets diagonally across the screen, staring into space in self-reproach, the score both sorrowful and ominous.

    Erica Abeel: Michael Fassbender's Sexoholic Triumphs at Toronto Erica Abeel 2011

  • The National played a set at the Hollywood Bowl on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that made their signature subjects -- self-reproach, uncertainty, despair -- turn sublime.

    S.X. Rosenstock: The National at the Hollywood Bowl S.X. Rosenstock 2011

  • He was periodically paralyzed by self-reproach and insecurity, and once wrote a defensive third-person preface to one of his later novels (The Age of Longing) in which he described its style as modeled on that of a certain “A. Koestler,” whose writing, “lacking in ornament and distinction, is easy to imitate.”

    The Zealot 2009

  • In his article “Mourning and Melancholia,” published in 1917, Freud characterized grief as a normal reaction, but also noted that it becomes “pathological” when the survivor has mixed feelings about the deceased, leading to guilt and unconscious self-reproach for his or her death.

    The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

  • In his article “Mourning and Melancholia,” published in 1917, Freud characterized grief as a normal reaction, but also noted that it becomes “pathological” when the survivor has mixed feelings about the deceased, leading to guilt and unconscious self-reproach for his or her death.

    The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

  • Brandon sprawls semi-naked on blue sheets diagonally across the screen, staring into space in self-reproach, the score both sorrowful and ominous.

    Erica Abeel: Michael Fassbender's Sexoholic Triumphs at Toronto Erica Abeel 2011

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