ourselves

Study(2)

UK /aʊəˈsɛlvz/ US /aʊɚˈsɛlvz/

pron 4

Collocations

ADJ.

against, all, best, devoted, fullest, over, rolling, understood

We need to give ourselves the best chance to succeed in this competition.

VERB + OURSELVES

agreed, beat, born, can't, couldn't, defend, enjoyed, find

We couldn't defend ourselves against all the criticism they threw at us.

OURSELVES + NOUN

development, difficulty, french, group, seaside, twilight

We found ourselves in a difficult situation when the car broke down on the motorway.

PREP.

among, between, in, in, up

We found ourselves in a difficult situation when the car broke down on the highway.

Definitions

pron

Us; the group including the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition when that group also is the subject.

We should keep this for ourselves.

Let's not beat ourselves up over this.

Intensifies the subject as the group including the speaker, especially to indicate that no one else satisfies the predicate or needs to be included.

We did it ourselves.

Referring to everyone being addressed.

Come on everyone! Let's get ourselves up and out of bed, please.

Now then children, I'm not going to help you with the next problem. We should be able to work this one out ourselves.

Referring to an individual person being addressed, especially a person in the speaker's care; also ourself.

Coordinate term: nurse's we

Hello Mrs Miggins. Did we manage to wash ourselves this morning?

Thesaurus

Synonyms

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

We should keep this for ourselves.

Wiktionary

Let's not beat ourselves up over this.

Wiktionary

We did it ourselves.

Wiktionary

Why can't we tickle ourselves?

Tatoeba · #2153

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.

Tatoeba · #2478

We enjoyed ourselves to the fullest.

Tatoeba · #22891

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, ourselves is marked as colloquial. Watch for register when choosing this word.

Your note

not saved

0 chars