How to Use self-protective in a Sentence
self-protective
adjective-
But anyone who has nurtured a daydream, or told a self-protective lie, can empathize with her, and learn something true about themselves.
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Boris Kachka,
The Atlantic,
9 Jan. 2026
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This self-protective habit can leave you struggling and the relationship seeming unbalanced and isolating for both partners.
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Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
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Military culture is fiercely self-protective, and soldiers who criticize it are usually treated as traitors.
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Literary Hub,
28 Apr. 2026
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Legislators need to realize that big tech is self-protective and eschews state boundaries in multifarious ways.
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The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
12 June 2026
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In this reading, which goes against the novel’s self-protective wish not to be interpreted, the wilderness doesn’t represent the destruction of insight but the beginning of experience.
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Hannah Gold,
New Yorker,
17 June 2026
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But Wood had also charged Whitehead with avoiding introspection, echoing an assessment that the novelist—who’d developed a self-protective reserve in childhood—was also beginning to reach.
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Julian Lucas,
New Yorker,
22 June 2026
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For most people, the inner programming is significantly outdated and rooted in deeply self-protective programming that prevents them from embracing the discomfort that comes with navigating complex changes and disruption.
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Rodger Dean Duncan,
Forbes.com,
27 June 2026
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On a far too frequent basis, Americans have listened to the erratic falsehoods of a pathologically narcissistic president while our Republican leaders in Congress cower in the corners of their offices in a state of self-protective paralysis.
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Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
23 Jan. 2026
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-protective.' 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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