self-own
UK/ˌsɛlfˈəʊn//ˌsɛlfˈoʊn/
self-own noun: a situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
Noun
self-own (plural self-owns)
- A situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
- All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own. If an own exposes another person’s ignorance, a self-own reveals your own obliviousness. During the campaign, Bobby Jindal tried to insult President Trump on Twitter but ended up suggesting that only fools would...2017 April 2, Amanda Hess, “Identity Theft [online title: None of Us Are Safe From Getting ‘Owned’]”, in New York Times Magazine, page 11
- "Unfortunately, ... we've had some incidents on travel dating back to when I first started serving in the March-April timeframe," [Scott] Pruitt told the Union Leader, which is hilarious because up to that point Pruitt never willingly spoke with a union leader. "We live in a very toxic environment...2018 February 28, “Air con”, in Oklahoma Gazette, page 11
- Synonyms:
- own goal
Examples of self-own in a sentence
- All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own.2017 April 2, Amanda Hess, “Identity Theft [online title: None of Us Are Safe From Getting ‘Owned’]”, in New York Times Magazine, page 11:
- Although—I will admit, I'm really enjoying what a self-own some of your logic is.2022, Violet Austerlitz, letter to the editor, Little Village, April 2022, page 15-16
Synonyms of self-own
Forms of self-own
| plural | self-owns |
|---|
Origin of self-own
From self- + own (“to defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm”).
Questions about self-own
- What does self-own mean?
- Self-own means a situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
- How do you use self-own in a sentence?
- All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own.
- What part of speech is self-own?
- Self-own is a noun.
- How do you pronounce self-own?
- Self-own is pronounced /ˌsɛlfˈəʊn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of self-own?
- The plural of self-own is self-owns.
Words near self-own in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: self-own (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-self-own.wav.
Cite this entry: “self-own.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/self-own. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.