self-defeating

adjective

self-de·​feat·​ing ˌself-di-ˈfē-tiŋ 

-dē-

: serving or tending to defeat oneself or itself : counterproductive: such as

a

: acting to defeat its own purpose

a self-defeating argument

You kind of realize that violence can be a self-defeating strategy, because it just gives the other guy an incentive to attack you back in revenge.

—Stephen Pinker

b

: being or involving an attitude of defeatism

Procrastinators tend to be more stressed than other people—even before they start procrastinating. According to a recent study, that's possibly because they have self-defeating thoughts like, "I'm simply too stupid to benefit from more studying, so I'll just hang out on Facebook."

—Shana Lebowitz

Examples of self-defeating in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This culminated in a dramatic and self-defeating reversal of Pope Benedict’s lifting of the ban on the Traditional Latin Mass. —The Editors, National Review, 21 Apr. 2025

Just one more way Trump’s self-defeating trade war is making China’s ambitions of economic dominance great again. —William Pesek, Forbes.com, 15 Apr. 2025

Masochism, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980, is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of self-defeating behavior. —Judith Joseph, Contributor, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2025

One possible explanation for this self-defeating behavior is that the Trump Administration doesn’t actually care about winning—at least, not about winning in court. —Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1812, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-defeating

• overeating
• overheating
• superheating
• accreting
• competing
• completing
• concreting
• defeating
• deleting
• depleting
• entreating
• preheating

Kids Definition

self-defeating

adjective

self-de·​feat·​ing

ˌself-di-ˈfēt-iŋ

: acting to defeat its own purpose