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soul-searching

adj
/ˈsəʊlsəːtʃɪŋ/UK/ˈsoʊlˌsəɹtʃɪŋ/US

Etymology

From soul + searching; the noun is derived from the adjective.

Definitions

  1. Involving probing introspection, or a critical consideration of one's conscience,…

    Involving probing introspection, or a critical consideration of one's conscience, especially motives and values.

    • His face is fair, rather oval, his eye dark, soft and bashful, glows with a soul-searching kindness; […]
    • He [Thomas Shepard] was a soul-searching minister of the gospel. By his death, not only the church and people of Cambridge, but also all New England, sustained a very great loss.

  2. Probing introspection

    Probing introspection; a critical consideration of one's conscience; also, an instance of such consideration.

    • After much soul-searching I decided to confess.
    • You’d better do some serious soul-searching before you decide to leave her.

  3. present participle and gerund of soul-search

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for soul-searching. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA