herself
Americanpronoun
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an emphatic appositive of her or she.
She herself wrote the letter.
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a reflexive form of her.
She supports herself.
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(used in absolute constructions).
Herself still only a child, she had to take care of her four younger brothers and sisters.
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(used as the object of a preposition or as the direct or indirect object of a verb).
She gave herself a facial massage. He asked her for a picture of herself.
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(used in comparisons after as orthan ).
She found out that the others were even more nervous than herself.
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her normal or customary self.
After a few weeks of rest, she will be herself again.
pronoun
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the reflexive form of she or her
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(intensifier)
the queen herself signed the letter
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(preceded by a copula) her normal or usual self
she looks herself again after the operation
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the wife or woman of the house
is herself at home?
Usage
See myself.
Etymology
Origin of herself
before 1000; Middle English hire-selfe, Old English hire self. See her, self
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“But Anita, you’ve only been here for five minutes,” Ms. Lee represents herself as protesting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
“She’s had a couple of years where she’s played a decent amount of games for her age and now this year she’s really established herself as a consistent No. 1.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
He may feel grief and even perhaps guilt as a result of inheriting a large sum of money from an individual who led a modest lifestyle herself.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
Corinne Card also found herself floored when the first question she was asked in an interview for an administrative job was if she liked working with people.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
All the calm she’d managed to take into herself cracked.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
