self-containment
Americannoun
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the state of being self-contained.
Etymology
Origin of self-containment
First recorded in 1840–50
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But devotees do want someone called “Sherlock Holmes” to have some passing resemblance to the character they know—the coolly cerebral detective whose self-containment is as pronounced as his deductions.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026
But Purvis especially, in spite of Patience’s self-containment, radiates quiet charisma — new-star power.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2025
This aim of self-containment, back turned to the street outside, has long put big hotel lobbies out of favor with urbanists.
From Slate • Jul. 28, 2023
Perhaps the most touching works in the Philadelphia show are those that suggest the longer arc of Scully’s career, from purity to messiness, rigidity to freedom, self-containment to self-expression.
From Washington Post • May 27, 2022
It startled her, that Obinzes mother, fully hemmed into her self-containment, her intense privacy, could cry watching a film.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.