corrosive, mordant, both grovelling and self-aggrandising

America is meant to be a temple of free enterprise. It isn't

Too much profit in America is a sign of corrosive concentration

Big firms in the United States have never had it so good. Time for more…

ECON.ST

Oscar Wilde

"Conceit is one of the greatest of the virtues, yet how few people
recognise it as a thing to aim at and to strive after. In conceit many a
man and woman has found salvation, yet the average person goes on all-fours grovelling after modesty."
-- Oscar Wilde

Carter is also vividly recalled here, by among others Anne Enright, who writes of her with a stark admiration all the more candid for her mordant acknowledgement that "the posture of the writer talking about great and previous writers is both grovelling and self-aggrandising".

corrosive 

Pronunciation: /kəˈrəʊsɪv/ 

ADJECTIVE

Tending to cause corrosion:the corrosive effects of salt water

mordant

Syllabification: (mor·dant)

Pronunciation: /ˈmôrdnt/

adjective

• (especially of humor) having or showing a sharp or critical quality; biting:a mordant sense of humor

noun

• a substance, typically an inorganic oxide, that combines with a dye or stain and thereby fixes it in a material.
• an adhesive compound for fixing gold leaf.
• a corrosive liquid used to etch the lines on a printing plate.

verb

[with object]

• impregnate or treat (a fabric) with a mordant.

Derivatives

mordancy

Pronunciation: /-dnsē/

noun

mordantly

adverb

Origin:

late 15th century: from French, present participle of mordre 'to bite', from Latin mordere

grovel

Syllabification: (grov·el)

Pronunciation: /ˈgrävəl, ˈgrə-/

Translate grovel | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

verb (grovels, groveling, groveled ; Britishgrovels, grovelling, grovelled)

[no object]

• lie or move abjectly on the ground with one’s face downward:she was groveling on the floor in fear
• act in an obsequious manner in order to obtain someone’s forgiveness or favor:everyone expected me to grovel with gratitude (as adjective groveling)his groveling references to “great” historians and their “brilliant” works

Derivatives

groveler

noun

grovelingly

adverb

Origin:

Middle English: back-formation from the obsolete adverb grovelling, from obsolete groof, grufe 'the face or front' (in the phrase on grufe, from Old Norse á grúfu 'face downward') + the suffix -ling

Spelling rule

Do not double the final consonant when adding endings that begin with a vowel to a word that ends in a vowel plus a consonant, if the stress is not at the end of the word (as in target): (grovels, groveling, groveled).

self-aggrandizement

Syllabification: (self-ag·gran·dize·ment)

noun

• the action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important.

Derivatives

self-aggrandizing

adjective