ourselves

American  

[ahr-selvz, ou^uhr-, ou-er-] / ɑrˈsɛlvz, aʊər-, ˌaʊ ər- /

pronoun

1. 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.

2. (used as an intensive withwe ).

   We ourselves would never say such a thing.

3. 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.

4. (used in place of we or us after as, than, orbut ).

   How many parents are as fortunate as ourselves? No one loves skiing more than ourselves. Nobody heard it but ourselves.

5. our customary, normal, or healthy selves.

   After a good rest, we're almost ourselves again.

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ourselves British  

/ aʊəˈsɛlvz /

pronoun

1. 1. the reflexive form of we or us

   2. (intensifier)

      we ourselves will finish it

2. (preceded by a copula) our usual selves

   we are ourselves when we're together

3. not_standard used instead of we or us in compound noun phrases

   other people and ourselves

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Usage

See myself.

Etymology

Origin of ourselves

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ourselves

Co-editors Daysha Broadway and Thompson-Hernandez nimbly leap back in time to that day so we can see her optimism for ourselves — and, yes, her smile is painfully pretty.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

The adults would engage in animated conversation, usually about current events, while we, the dozen or so kids, kept ourselves busy inventing games.

From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026

“A lot of times, we think we can’t formally put them on a PIP so we might as well fix the work ourselves, but there are steps between those two,” West says.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

But every person you ask has a slightly different answer; how are humans meant to encode our values into AI if we can't agree ourselves?

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

I began to feel drowsy, and as I dozed off, I thought about this world and the things we humans struggled for, and all the ways in which we imprisoned ourselves, and each other.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo