self-contained

English

Etymology

From self- +‎ contained.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlf.kənˌteɪnd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

self-contained (comparative more self-contained, superlative most self-contained)

1. Not requiring external or additional support; complete in itself.

   a self-contained apartment

   The software is self-contained, and doesn't interface with anything except the user.

   Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

   • 1958 January, 'Borderer', “Ten Years of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 13:

     All these were based broadly on the management framework of the old companies, except that the former Southern and North Eastern Areas of the old L.N.E.R. became separate management units, while the former L.M.S.R. and L.N.E.R. lines north of the Border were fused into a self-contained Scottish Region.

   • 1961 February, R. K. Evans, “The role of research on British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 92:

     Each of these can be further sub-divided into self-contained divisions; the technical research department, for example, includes Engineering and Chemical Divisions.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 109:

     Whereas the history of the London Underground is generally very fiddly, the history of the Waterloo & City is blessedly self-contained and simple.

   • 2020 December 16, Chris Howe, “Merseyrail sets its sights on network expansion”, in Rail, page 34:

     Merseyrail is, in effect, a self-contained network with eight termini. At six of these [...], passengers can transfer onto national rail network services.

2. (idiomatic) Of a person, wrapped up in oneself; reserved.

Verb

self-contained

1. simple past and past participle of self-contain

Hypernyms

• contained

Translations

not requiring external or additional support — see also autonomous,‎ independent,‎ autarkic

• Bulgarian: самостоятелен (bg) (samostojatelen), автономен (bg) (avtonomen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 設施齊全的 / 设施齐全的 (shèshī qíquán de), 獨立 / 独立 (zh) (dúlì), 自給 / 自给 (zh) (zìjǐ)

• Finnish: omavarainen (fi)
• French: autonome (fr), indépendant (fr)
• German: autark (de), autonom (de), selbstständig (de)
• Greek: αυτόνομος (el) (aftónomos), αυτοτελής (el) (aftotelís), ανεξάρτητος (el) (anexártitos)
• Hungarian: önálló (hu)
• Japanese: 自給の (ja) (じきゅうの, jikyū no)
• Portuguese: independente (pt)
• Russian: автоно́мный (ru) (avtonómnyj), незави́симый (ru) (nezavísimyj), самостоя́тельный (ru) (samostojátelʹnyj)
• Vietnamese: khép kín (vi)

wrapped up in oneself; reserved