selfishly
adverb
self·ish·ly
ˈsel-fish-lē 
: in a selfish way
acting/behaving selfishly
… he selfishly hogged attention for his injury …—
Louise Erdrich
Louise ErdrichHe finds support for his intuition from game theory, which says that if everyone in a game acts selfishly, everyone suffers.—Gina Kolata
Gina KolataExamples of selfishly in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Who wants a governor who caves so easily to pressure and selfishly chooses to expand her suburban vote rather than serve the ten million New Yorkers who would have benefited from the program?
—Alex Matthiessen, New York Daily News, 6 June 2024
The move came from love, and perhaps from Deborah, a little bit selfishly, wanting to enjoy her success alone.
—Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 23 May 2024
Titanic corporations and trusts had acquired immense political power and were quite selfishly exploiting that power to resist all challenges to their economic interests.
—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020
Passing industry-specific wage requirements is a distorting overreach that creates incentives for industry groups and politicians to lobby selfishly.
—Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 May 2024
When available, the side of roasted wild mushrooms is a gem to be shared or to be selfishly guarded.
—Ben Jarrell, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024
Altruists seek to understand how their actions will affect others—while willful ignorance can free people to act selfishly
By Linh Vu & Margarita Leib
In the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol, the wealthy miser Ebenezer Scrooge has a magical, life-changing epiphany.
—Linh Vu, Scientific American, 11 Dec. 2023
And when looking at it selfishly in this was, as any fan might, the end result is a basketball product the likes of which have never been seen within a car ride of my house.
—Mark Deeks, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
No honest person can selfishly deplete entire buckets of candy offered to them on Halloween night only to celebrate contentment a few weeks later.
—Faith Barton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Nov. 2023
Alex Matthiessen, New York Daily News, 6 June 2024
The move came from love, and perhaps from Deborah, a little bit selfishly, wanting to enjoy her success alone.
—Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 23 May 2024
Titanic corporations and trusts had acquired immense political power and were quite selfishly exploiting that power to resist all challenges to their economic interests.
—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020
Passing industry-specific wage requirements is a distorting overreach that creates incentives for industry groups and politicians to lobby selfishly.
—Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 May 2024
When available, the side of roasted wild mushrooms is a gem to be shared or to be selfishly guarded.
—Ben Jarrell, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024
Altruists seek to understand how their actions will affect others—while willful ignorance can free people to act selfishly
By Linh Vu & Margarita Leib
In the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol, the wealthy miser Ebenezer Scrooge has a magical, life-changing epiphany.
—Linh Vu, Scientific American, 11 Dec. 2023
And when looking at it selfishly in this was, as any fan might, the end result is a basketball product the likes of which have never been seen within a car ride of my house.
—Mark Deeks, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
No honest person can selfishly deplete entire buckets of candy offered to them on Halloween night only to celebrate contentment a few weeks later.
—Faith Barton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Nov. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'selfishly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Selfishly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/selfishly. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.
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