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Definition
unaffected by self-interest- "General Service Administration," intoned a disinterested switchboard operator.Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity
- He stared as Jace reached out a hand and gently, almost disinterestedly, caressed the hilt of the sword that had been driven into the floor.Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
- "Going far?" asked the smaller man in a pleasant disinterested way.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- This Side of Paradise
- He didn't know me, his help was disinterested ....Ralph Ellison -- Invisible Man
- Why keep this thing alive, this rumor of disinterestedness?Thornton Wilder -- The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- Or at least, they pretend to," he adds with a disinterested shrug.Victoria Aveyard -- Red Queen
- Gritting her teeth, she glanced around, but the nearby guards and servants remained as disinterested as a concrete wall.Marissa Meyer -- Cinder
- There was a bare wooden stage with two hairy-stemmed palm trees on each end and four girls in the center, swaying gently, disinterestedly.Maureen Daly -- Seventeenth Summer
- Thanks to his scientific mind he understood—a proof of disinterested intelligence which had pleased her and comforted her enormously.Virginia Woolf -- To the Lighthouse
- He was either so crushed by his own words that he couldn't proceed with his charade, or he truly did not care for her and was now disinterested.Ted Dekker -- White: The Great Pursuit
- It is this: in what we have done, and whatever you may think of it, we have been perfectly disinterested.T.S. Eliot -- Murder in the Cathedral
- He nodded, disinterested.Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl -- Beautiful Creatures
- I, who have so disinterested an affection for you, may increase your miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your wishes.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- Did you ever in your novel reading come across the old situation of the disinterested wife falling in love with her own husband?Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
- Disinter—disinterested—disjoin—dis(She backtracks, indignant.William Gibson -- The Miracle Worker
- "Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch.Charles Dickens -- A Christmas Carol
- DUDARD: It was obviously a disinterested gesture on his part.Eugene Ionesco -- Rhinoceros
- It's hard to tell how quickly they'll reach the police—the volunteers seem utterly disinterested.Gillian Flynn -- Gone Girl
- I was probing him for details, and he spoke for seven or eight disinterested minutes.James Bradley -- Flags of Our Fathers
- Would he only sit, disinterested, on the boy's arm, while Cort struck him brainless with the ironwood?Stephen King -- The Gunslinger
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means state or degree of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)