narrow-sighted

English

Alternative forms

• narrow sighted

Etymology

Compare narrow-minded and short-sighted.

Adjective

narrow-sighted

1. Lacking perspective; Overly focused on one aspect.
   • 1853, Andrew Jackson Downing ·, “The New-York Park”, in Rural Essays, page 148:

     But few of those who see that incongruity, know that it was dictated by the narrow-sighted frugality of the common council who were its building committee, and who determined that it would be useless to waste margle on the rear of the City-Hall, "since that side would only be seen by persons living in the suburbs."

   • 1983, Brian Hindley, State Investment Companies in Western Europe, page 23:

     Presumably in such an approach it is not important to attempt to minimise the costs of “narrow-sighted rationalisation' and irrelevant or impossible to monitor the performance of a state investment company.

   • 1990, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Budget, Views and Estimates of Committees of the House, page 6:

     Those involved in producing food and fiber in the United States simply cannot withstand another round of narrow-sighted budget negotiations which leaves them in an even more financially precarious position.

   • 2003, Lisa Rodensky, The Crime in Mind, page 120:

     And if I were capable of that narrow-sighted joy on Adam's behalf, I should still know he was not the man to feel it for himself: he would have shaken his head at such a sentiment, and said, “ Evil's evil, and sorrow's sorrow, and you can't alter its nature by wrapping it up in other words."

   • 2006, Per Davidsson, Researching Entrepreneurship, page 171:

     In this perspective, chasing the truth about what category creates most jobs internally is narrow-sighted.

   • 2020, Emily Balcetis, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, page 140:

     Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but industry analysts surmise that one key factor in Crumbs's initial success was also the reason for its fall from glory: a narrow-sighted focus on the sale of a single product—those cupcakes.

Derived terms

• narrow-sightedness