Definition of "asocial"
asocial
adjective
comparative more asocial, superlative most asocial
Not sociable; having minimal social connections with others; not inclined to connect with others socially.
Quotations
Mrs Alphen, from her deck chair, would call at him brightly, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, being so selfish and neglecting us ladies and all!” and she would gesture at the deck chair beside her, but he would only smile and scuttle away, realizing that he was asocial and a scoundrel.
1938, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 36, in The Prodigal Parents, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, page 268
In a nation which increasingly appears to prize social virtues, Howard Hughes remains not merely antisocial but grandly, brilliantly, surpassingly, asocial. He is the last private man, the dream we no longer admit.
1967, Joan Didion, “7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, New York: Dell, published 1968, page 72
(sometimes proscribed) Antisocial.
Quotations
Contrasting with the complete haphazardness with which the inmates are selected are the categories, meaningless in themselves but useful from the standpoint of organization, into which they are usually divided on their arrival. In the German camps there were criminals, politicals, asocial elements, religious offenders, and Jews, all distinguished by insignia.
1951, Hannah Arendt, “Totalitarianism in Power”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif., New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, part 3 (Totalitarianism), page 449
The social worker speaks of asocial behavior. The term is familiar to the young criminal. The social worker is able to explain the causes of this asocial behavior. But the delinquent could do it too, and in the very same terms.
1977, Saul Bellow, “The Jefferson Lectures”, in It All Adds Up, New York: Viking, published 1994, page 130
noun
plural asocials
A person considered to be antisocial or to exhibit antisocial behaviour, especially as a classification used by the Nazi regime in Germany.
Quotations
“Remember, there was no on-paper legislation against blacks, so they were often admitted to work camps on trumped-up charges and under various crimes. Some were interned as Communists, or as immigrants, who wore the blue badge. Or as homosexuals, who wore the pink badge, or as repeat criminals, who wore the green badge, or asocials, who wore the black badge.”
2011, Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues, Toronto: HarperCollins, published 2013, Part 2, pp. 49-50