OURSELVES Definition & Meaning

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ourselves

[ ahr-selvz, ouuhr-, ou-er- ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

plural pronoun

a reflexive form of we (used as the direct or indirect object of a verb or the direct object of a preposition):
We are deceiving ourselves. Give us a moment to ourselves.
(used as an intensive with we ):
We ourselves would never say such a thing.
Informal. (used in place of we or us, especially in compound subjects, objects, and complements):
The children and ourselves thank you kindly. When it satisfies ourselves, it will be ready to market. The ones who really want the new system are the manager and ourselves.
(used in place of we or us after as, than, or but ):
How many parents are as fortunate as ourselves? No one loves skiing more than ourselves. Nobody heard it but ourselves.
our customary, normal, or healthy selves:
After a good rest, we're almost ourselves again.

ourselves

/ ��ʊəˈ��ɛ�� /

pronoun

1. the reflexive form of we or us
2. (intensifier)
  we ourselves will finish it
preceded by a copula our usual selves
we are ourselves when we're together
not_standard.
used instead of we or us in compound noun phrases
other people and ourselves

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Usage Note

See myself.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of ourselves¹

1300–50; Middle English oure selven; our, self, -en ⁴, -s ³

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

"We think we do enough no-notice inspections to reassure ourselves in the cases where the data is worrying," she adds.

From

“We got a chance to grow up, and find out a lot about ourselves. We figured out how to work alone, and that makes us better together,” said Fenix Flexin of their time spent apart.

From

“We know a lot of teams are jumbled up right now. So, we just got to take care of business, a game at a time and try to separate ourselves the best we can.”

From

When his engineer told him at one point that he was about 0.3secs behind Russell, Tsunoda replied: "Let's focus on ourselves. I don't need much reference time."

From

"If Hezbollah don't do a proper reassessment of the situation... they will destroy themselves and harm us along the way. We brought this destruction on ourselves, and we're now suffering".

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