Word info Synonyms Antonyms

cynical

Speech parts

1. cynical - Adjective

2. cynical - Adjective Satellite

Meaning

Having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling; captious; currish.

Pertaining to the Dog Star; as, the cynic, or Sothic, year; cynic cycle.

Belonging to the sect of philosophers called cynics; having the qualities of a cynic; pertaining to, or resembling, the doctrines of the cynics.

Given to sneering at rectitude and the conduct of life by moral principles; disbelieving in the reality of any human purposes which are not suggested or directed by self-interest or self-indulgence; as, a cynical man who scoffs at pretensions of integrity; characterized by such opinions; as, cynical views of human nature.

Source: Webster's dictionary

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Examples

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. George Carlin

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack. George S. Patton

No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up. Lily Tomlin

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian. Lionel Trilling

Oh, let me be mawkish for the nonce! I am so tired of being cynical. Vladimir Nabokov

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody. Brendan Behan

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