Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- pronoun Those ones identical with us.
- pronoun Used reflexively as the direct or indirect object of a verb or the object of a preposition.
- pronoun Used for emphasis.
- pronoun Used in an absolute construction.
- pronoun Our normal or healthy condition or state.
from The Century Dictionary.
- We or us, not others: often, when used as a nominative, added to we by way of emphasis; when in the objective, often without emphasis and simply serving as the reflexive pronoun corresponding to us: as, we blame ourselves; we pledge ourselves.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- pronoun An emphasized form of the pronoun of the first person plural; -- used as a subject, usually with
we ; also, alone in the predicate, in the nominative or the objective case.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- pronoun reflexive
us ; the group including the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition when that group also is the subject. - pronoun emphatic
we ; intensifies the subject as the group including the speaker, especially to indicate that no one else satisfies the predicate.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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There is no such thing as vengeance for a private wrong, and therefore we have the precept to forgive our enemies, and not to avenge ourselves, in which phrase the emphasis falls on the word _ourselves_.
Moral Philosophy Joseph Rickaby 1888
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The charity which we should thus bear to ourselves is the model of that which we owe to our neighbour, whom we are to love _as ourselves_, not with the same intensity, but with the same quality of love, wishing him the good, human and divine, temporal and eternal, which we wish for ourselves, though not so earnestly as we wish it for ourselves.
Moral Philosophy Joseph Rickaby 1888
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If we are to _be_ in Christ when we are in Ephesus, we need to keep ourselves separate and faithful, and to _keep ourselves_ in
Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John Alexander Maclaren 1868
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_Keep ourselves to ourselves_, for I'll tell you a bit of a sacret --
Tales and Novels — Volume 09 Maria Edgeworth 1808
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Permission to believe in ourselves is the ability to accept our limitations and move on despite them (or around them).
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Because keeping Love locked up within ourselves is to go against the spirit of God, it proves that we never knew Him, that He loved us in vain, and that His Son died to no avail.
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"I think the term ourselves refers principally to ordained ministers and their wives," Abner judged.
Hawaii Michener, James 1959
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So when everyone else stops calling us Yids and chanting racist abuse, then you can make a case for us to stop using the term ourselves.
The Guardian World News Anna Kessel 2011
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The true way to have rejoicing in ourselves is to be much in proving our own works, in examining ourselves by the unerring rule of God's word, and not by the false measures of what others are, or may think of us.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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I don't know, but just about anything is better than what we label ourselves now.
Countercurrents.org 2010
tammanycall commented on the word ourselves
Wednesday's toast is full of woe.
April 14, 2009