Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Adj.

Made by one’s self.

Self-made man

a man who has risen from poverty or obscurity by means of his own talents or energies.

self-made ‎(not comparable)

Of a person, having achieved success by one's own efforts.
My father was the quintessential self-made man.
- 1852-1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House:
  There was I a dragoon, roving, unsettled, not self-made like him, but self-unmade—all my earlier advantages thrown away, all my little learning unlearnt, nothing picked up but what unfitted me for most things that I could think of.
Of a thing, made by oneself instead of bought or taken over.
- 1905, Fielding Yost, Football for Player and Spectator:
  Originally each school was bound only by self-made rules.

of a person, having achieved success by one's own efforts

of a thing, made by oneself instead of bought or taken over