The move was not disciplinary, but self-protective.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Tiger in the Smoke]

And, you know, she is a protective, self-protective woman.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Feb 19, 2006] Reference

In such a self-protective culture, creative release is rare.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tom Doctoroff: Chinese Culture and Corporate Power Plays] Reference

That is called the self-protective psychology of human nature.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stephen Breyer: The Court, The Cases And The Conflicts] Reference

There are a lot of children, that seems to be self-protective.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Jul 17, 2002] Reference

The initial impulse for my list, however, was self-protective.    From Wordnik.com.  [Orville Schell: The Melting of America: The Story of a Can't-Do Nation] Reference

It's hard even to say the name without a self-protective snicker.    From Wordnik.com.  [Twenty-Five Years Later, We're Still Living In Woodstock Nation] Reference

"It's possible that in some cases its self-protective," says Twenge.    From Wordnik.com.  [All-American Rejects] Reference

It didn't take me long to realize that that was self-protective folly.    From Wordnik.com.  [Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths] Reference

Just in time he changed the move into a cringing, self-protective gesture.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Saracen: Land of the Infidel] Reference

Even inside each side's half, one finds caveats and self-protective hedges.    From Wordnik.com.  [100 Days: 'Harry, I Have a Gift'] Reference

And I felt the foundations of my self-protective isolation begin to crumble.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Shape of Dread]

But it also belies a self-protective mechanism, and a dysfunctional worldview. '.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blaming the Victim] Reference

He is being so careful and self-protective at this point, and the question is, why?.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Aug 12, 2004] Reference

EA: That moment showed that all women need to do a better job at being self-protective.    From Wordnik.com.  [Melissa Silverstein: Interview with Emily Abt, Director, All of Us] Reference

If I were her, from a purely self-protective, even selfish motive, I'd think about that. '.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Hearing]

Jones's alacrity in redirecting compliments that come his way may be a self-protective strategy.    From Wordnik.com.  [George Is On Our Mind] Reference

This “casting” of the tail would seem, really, to be an interesting, self-protective effort.    From Wordnik.com.  [Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter] Reference

They will resist and feel self-protective and behave in ways that will validate our fears of them.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diane Perlman: Pressuring Iran: Self Fulfilling Paranoia and the Law of Opposites] Reference

It is a self-protective instinct, a movement that is made without its being necessary to think it out.    From Wordnik.com.  [New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 April-September, 1915] Reference

Is the self-protective mode, in this world in which cruelty exists, necessarily a happy state of mind?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Swati Desai: The Importance of Being Unhappy] Reference

He will plead that these were instinctive, self-protective actions committed without intention to kill.    From Wordnik.com.  [Killer Dolphin]

He folded his arms over his chest, fully realizing that it was a subconscious, self-protective gesture.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ricochet]

They are sales-driven and managed by emperor-kings who rule in a defensive, even self-protective, manner.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tom Doctoroff: Chinese Global Brands: A Long Road to Rome] Reference

Whether it is self-protective denial or truth torments me as my father says he "never liked the old place.".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Walls Came Down: A Family In Transition] Reference

Absorbed by our own security needs, we do not see how our actions make others insecure and self-protective.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diane Perlman: Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren on Evil] Reference

For the last 7 years I have consistently put on weight, a self-protective bubble, in order to be invisible.    From Wordnik.com.  [Michelle Renee: Why Pizza Is No Longer My Boyfriend] Reference

Suppressed longing leads to the self-protective cynicism we see everywhere in the media and in too much of the left.    From Wordnik.com.  [Warren Goldstein: Real Patriotism] Reference

The leaders I've written about were all anxious, self-protective, tormented politicians who tried to avoid walking through fire.    From Wordnik.com.  [A President's Ultimate Test] Reference

But from now on it'll be with a self-protective quality, designed to make sure I don't have my hope turned to doom, all at once.    From Wordnik.com.  [David Murray: What Kind of Fall is This Going to Be?] Reference

Iraq is dividing into self-protective enclaves, most of which don't rely on Maliki's U.S. compromised military for protection at all.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bush's Retreat to Iraq] Reference

In general, a contractor in a logistical role is entitled to use the level of self-protective weaponry authorized to medical personnel.    From Wordnik.com.  [Quote Of The Day] Reference

On the other hand, if the PRC sees the world as lined up against it, the Middle Kingdom will not emerge from its self-protective cocoon.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tom Doctoroff: Tibet, Beijing and Olympic Sponsors: To Boycott or Not] Reference

And the consequences of such a defensive, self-protective crouch would make the suppression of Tibetan monks look like a walk in the park.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tom Doctoroff: Tibet, Beijing and Olympic Sponsors: To Boycott or Not] Reference

The piece, which labeled the games the "genocide Olympics," provoked immediate self-protective action from the People's Republic of China.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Olympic Victory] Reference