/sin"ik/ , n.
1. a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.
2. ( cap. ) one of a sect of Greek philosophers, 4th century B.C., who advocated the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath human dignity.
3. a person who shows or expresses a bitterly or sneeringly cynical attitude.
adj.
4. cynical.
5. ( cap. ) Also, Cynical . of or pertaining to the Cynics or their doctrines.
6. Med. Now Rare. resembling the actions of a snarling dog.
[ 1540-50; Cynicus Kynikós Cynic, lit., doglike, currish, equiv. to kyn- (s. of kýon ) dog + -ikos - IC ]
Syn. 1, 3. skeptic, pessimist, misanthrope.