Home US English self-limiting

Definition of self-limiting in English:

self-limiting

Pronunciation /self ˈlimidiNG/ /sɛlf ˈlɪmɪdɪŋ/

adjective

  • 1Relating to or denoting something which limits itself.

    ‘commodity speculation is self-limiting’
    • ‘The reason that the minimum wage is problematic is that it is also self-limiting, only because companies can't pay employees less than the minimum wage, what generally gets limited is the number of jobs.’
    • ‘Instead of being self-limiting, the old-style colloquial schoolboy language used gives an intensity of expression in a simple and precise way.’
    • ‘Press baron demagoguery, however unfair, reflected the biases and passions of specific men, and was thus self-limiting.’
    • ‘That guarantees that the story is eventually self-limiting.’
    • ‘Are you in fact a self-limiting company consigning yourself to being eternally small because of the high environmental standards you expect?’
    • ‘Imagine an environment where you receive acceptance without judgement and break from self-limiting behaviour.’
    • ‘For the rest of us, self-limiting commoners, join me in the self-conversion process.’
    • ‘The process is self-limiting and the increasing levels of alcohol kill off the yeast.’
    1. 1.1Medicine (of a condition) ultimately resolving itself without treatment.
      ‘money is wasted on prescriptions for self-limiting illnesses’
      • ‘Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a self-limiting condition once the offending agent has been discontinued.’
      • ‘No one explained to them the scientific and practical gains that might come from knowing more about the self-limiting and self-correcting nature of syphilis so as to be able to evaluate the power of early therapeutic interventions.’
      • ‘A spokesperson said the virus seemed to be self-limiting and the student suspected of having meningitis underwent the full range of laboratory tests for the illness.’
      • ‘Uncomplicated cases of cholera are self-limiting in nature and the patient recovers within three to six days.’
      • ‘In most patients it is self-limiting and a definite cause cannot be found.’

  • 2(in psychology) preventing the development or expression of the self.

    ‘low self-esteem comes from the self-limiting beliefs we have about our bodies’
    • ‘When this happens, the subliminal beliefs that formerly were self-limiting begin to change.’