(reflexive pronoun)The reflexive case ofthey, thethird-person pluralpersonal pronoun. The group of people, animals, or objects previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition(also used for emphasis).
(reflexively):
They’ve hurtthemselves.
(after a preposition):
They fought amongthemselves.
(for emphasis):
They are going to try climbing Mount Everestthemselves.
The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbingthemselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
2008 February 17, Jennifer Finney Boylan, “At the Maine Caucuses, a Tough Nut to Crack”, inThe New York Times[1], archived fromthe original on26 November 2022:
The real drama came as these two camps fought for undecideds, who literally foundthemselves in the middle.
(reflexive pronoun)The reflexive case ofthey, thethird-person singularpersonal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition(also used for emphasis).
(reflexively):
Would whoever stole my phone please makethemselves known.
In fact she was so busy doing all the things that anyone might, who findsthemselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.
2024 August 9, Meg Tirrell, “First nasal spray epinephrine drug for emergency allergic reactions gets FDA approval”, inCNN[2]:
“Anyone who has experienced or witnessed an anaphylaxis reaction knows it can be very stressful deciding when to inject epinephrine tothemselves or a child and often delay,” Dr. Jonathan Spergel, chief of the allergy program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a news release from ARS Pharmaceuticals.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
