How to Use self-preservation in a Sentence

self-preservation

noun
Definition of self-preservationnext
  • What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs?
    — The Editors, National Review, 6 June 2024
  • The boy in the story has developed some crafty means of self-preservation.
    — Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • There’s a self-preservation in there somewhere, a bit of resilience.
    — Jordan Moreau, Variety, 7 May 2023
  • The story of how Landi ended up living on a leaky barge some 30 miles off the shore of Dubai is a tale of self-preservation.
    — Atossa Araxia Abrahamian Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2025
  • There’s no judgment here on those who need to step away from soul-crushing updates in the name of self-preservation.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Therefore, for the sake of self-preservation, the Middle colonies and South Carolina chose the lesser of two evils.
    — Time, 3 July 2023
  • About the importance of setting boundaries for the sake of self-preservation?
    — Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Nov. 2023
  • Kenneth is a 38-year-old who’s led a very small, isolated life out of self-preservation.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 14 June 2023
  • Sometimes not speaking out can be an act of self-preservation.
    — Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024
  • But by 2021, leaving it had seemed a necessary form of self-preservation.
    — Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 4 Jan. 2024
  • These men’s complacency, The Seed of the Sacred Fig argues, isn’t just a selfish act of self-preservation.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024
  • This is in line with the phenomena of self-care and self-preservation as opposed to selfishness.
    — David Oliver, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Of resourceful self-preservation for the sake of self-preservation alone.
    — Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Her will—and maybe her capacity for self-preservation—had waned.
    — Amory Rowe Salem and Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Drivers who flee the scene after killing a pedestrian or cyclist often do so in an act of self-preservation.
    — Ryan Lillis, Sacramento Bee, 17 Jan. 2025
  • But the hobby that started as a matter of self-preservation was becoming a side hustle.
    — Liza Weisstuch, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2023
  • The self-preservation factor can’t be ignored and the fear of the unknown are hurdles to moving immediately to a nine-game SEC slate.
    — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, 31 May 2023
  • For Cook, the decision to end new music releases on PC was almost an act of self-preservation.
    — Ellise Shafer, Variety, 10 May 2024
  • What real or invented term could be used to describe this extreme form of self-preservation?
    — The Week Staff, The Week, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Put more time and energy into self-preservation and feeling and looking your best.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2024
  • Stick to the truth, keep your life simple and dedicate your time to self-preservation, learning and staying out of other people’s business.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 17 Nov. 2024
  • Makers of new drugs or medical implants, such as hips or pacemakers, are speed averse out of self-preservation.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 14 Mar. 2013
  • Most of them are abandoned or rejected by their peer groups, thanks to tribalism or simple self-preservation.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 Nov. 2024
  • Instead, for most of their predators, spiders are a safe snack — a tame and tasty treat — rather than a threat, forcing spiders to follow some pretty strange strategies for self-preservation.
    — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Congress should pass it on the basis of self-preservation alone; the justices lately have seemed all too happy to take over increasing shares of the other branches’ powers.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 19 July 2024
  • There is beauty in surrendering to new rhythms in a new season of life, to choosing self-preservation over self-interest.
    — Carola Lovering, Vogue, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Peace confines violence to self-defense in vindication of the right of self-preservation.
    — Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 16 Jan. 2025
  • Pedestrians scurried away with the typical aloofness New Yorkers adopt as a means of self-preservation.
    — Keith Nelson, Men's Health, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Many China watchers speculated that the death of the news conference could be an attempt at self-preservation by the current premier, Li Qiang.
    — Li Yuan, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
  • This is where the real divide occurs: the space in which real-life people are distilled to winners and losers in a political game others pretend to have no stakes in for the sake of self-preservation.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 14 Jan. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-preservation.' 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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