Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Deriving pleasure or sexual gratification from being abused or dominated: The primary meaning describes a psychological condition or tendency where a person experiences pleasure, often of a sexual nature, from their own pain, humiliation, or subjugation.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • His willingness to endure constant criticism from his boss seemed almost masochistic.
  • The film explores the protagonist's masochistic relationship with his tormentor.
  • She described a masochistic fantasy involving submission.

Advanced Usage

• Psychological/Psychiatric Context: In clinical psychology and psychiatry, "masochistic" is used to describe personality traits or paraphilias where suffering is a prerequisite for sexual arousal or emotional satisfaction.
  • The therapist identified self-defeating, masochistic patterns in his patient's behavior.
• Figurative/Colloquial Use: Often used non-clinically to describe a person who seems to deliberately choose or endure unpleasant, painful, or frustrating situations.
  • Staying up all night to finish the report was a masochistic decision.
  • Only someone with a masochistic streak would run a marathon in this heat.

Variants and Related Words

• Masochism (n): The condition or practice of deriving pleasure from one's own pain or humiliation.
  • The concept of masochism was named after the writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
• Masochist (n): A person who has masochistic tendencies.
  • He joked that anyone who enjoys tax paperwork must be a masochist.
• Sadomasochistic (adj): Pertaining to or involving both sadism and masochism.
  • They engaged in sadomasochistic role-play.

Synonyms

• Self-punishing: Inflicting punishment or hardship on oneself.
• Self-defeating: (Of behavior) likely to harm oneself or cause one's own failure.

Related Phrases

• Masochistic tendency: A habitual inclination toward masochistic behavior.
  • The character's masochistic tendency leads him into one abusive relationship after another.
• Masochistic pleasure: Pleasure derived from one's own suffering.
  • He took a kind of masochistic pleasure in listening to the harsh critique of his work.

Adjective

1. deriving pleasure or sexual gratification from being abused or dominated