Sample sentences for DISINTERESTED

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Definition

unaffected by self-interest

Much more rarely, disinterested can literally mean "not interested in something."

"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

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

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
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
I was simply developing her, entirely disinterestedly, trying to rouse her to protest....
Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment

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