self-humouring

Updated: June 6, 2025

The root of his disease is a self-humouring pride, and an accustomed tenderness not to be crossed in his fancy; and the occasion commonly of one of these three, a hard father, a peevish wench, or his ambition thwarted. He considered not the nature of the world till he felt it, and all blows fall on him heavier, because they light not first on his expectation.

Various - Character Writings of the 17th Century

And he was a self-humouring gentleman. He liked Sir Willoughby's tone in ordering the servant at his heels to take up "those two bottles": it prescribed, without overdoing it, a proper amount of caution, and it named an agreeable number. Watching the man's hand keenly, he said: "But here is the misfortune of a thing super-excellent: not more than one in twenty will do it justice."

George Meredith - The Egoist