Maana ya kamusi ya neno kujinyima ni kitendo cha kujinyima raha au maslahi binafsi kwa ajili ya kheri kubwa zaidi au kwa sababu za kimaadili au za kidini. Inahusisha uamuzi wa uangalifu wa kuzuia au kuacha tamaa, mahitaji, au matakwa ya mtu ili kufikia lengo la juu zaidi, kama vile nidhamu, ukuaji wa kiroho, au ustawi wa wengine. Kujinyima mara nyingi huhusisha kuacha kuridhika mara moja kwa ajili ya manufaa ya muda mrefu au kuchelewesha kuridhika kwa kibinafsi kwa ajili ya kusudi muhimu zaidi.
1. Behind them blew a hot scent of quiet passion, of destructive service, of merciless self-denial.
2. Instructed by the oldest if the Samanas, Siddhartha practised self-denial, practised meditation, according to a new Samana rules.
3. He went the way of self-denial by means of pain, through voluntarily suffering and overcoming pain, hunger, thirst, tiredness.
4. He went the way of self-denial by means of meditation, through imagining the mind to be void of all conceptions.
5. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.