self-immolation

[ self-im-uh-ley-shuh n ]

/ ˈsɛlfˌɪm əˈleɪ ʃən /

voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person.

Origin of self-immolation

First recorded in 1810–20

Or is it “a beautiful flare of ruin, self-immolation, disaster?”

Time Bandit: Donna Tartt’s “Goldfinch” |Liesl Schillinger |October 23, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
In higher-income countries, self-immolation was rare and most often carried out by males, many of whom had a psychiatric history.

Tibet, Persecution, and Marital Shame: Why People Burn Themselves to Death |Kent Sepkowitz |December 12, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Kent Sepkowitz looks at the centuries-long practice of self-immolation—and why it persists from India to Vietnam to Iran.

Tibet, Persecution, and Marital Shame: Why People Burn Themselves to Death |Kent Sepkowitz |December 12, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Self-immolation has been around for centuries, having been intermittently practiced by protesting monks in the East.

Tibet, Persecution, and Marital Shame: Why People Burn Themselves to Death |Kent Sepkowitz |December 12, 2012 |DAILY BEAST

It was as dramatic and cringe-worthy a self-immolation as I've ever seen.

Daily Beast Contributors Weigh In on the GOP Debate | |November 12, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
Great love is always capable of expressing itself in sacrifice and self-immolation.

Jerry of the Islands |Jack London
The words fell chillingly on the blaze of her self-immolation.

Sanctuary |Edith Wharton
This they evince by self-immolation, after the manner of eastern wives.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 351 |Various
Through his mind flashed the call to revolt, the born rebel's impulsive desire for self-immolation.

August Strindberg, the Spirit of Revolt |L. (Lizzy) Lind-af-Hageby
John Crawford was a suicide, and he had chosen a peculiarly American mode of self-immolation.

Shoulder-Straps |Henry Morford

self-immolation

the act or an instance of setting fire to oneself