Yourself

//jəˈsɛlf// pron

pron ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Pronoun

1
Your own self (singular). pronoun, reflexive
"Be careful with that fire or you'll burn yourself."
2
Honorific alternative letter-case form of yourself, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context. alt-of, honorific
3
You (singular); used emphatically, especially to indicate exclusiveness of the referent's participation in the predicate, i.e., that no one else is involved. emphatic, pronoun
"You yourself know that what you wrote was wrong."
4
You (singular); even when "you" has not been used previously; see usage notes. Ireland, especially, proscribed
"I spoke with yourself last in February."

Synonyms

alter alter ego alterum better self ego ethical self

Example

"Stop asking me for a drink! Go get it yourself."

Etymology

From Middle English yourself, equivalent to your + -self.

Related phrases

because you touch yourself at night buy yourself a hat check yourself before you wreck yourself dig yourself do it yourself do-it-yourself don't keep a dog and bark yourself don't knock yourself out fuck yourself go chase yourself go screw yourself go shit yourself

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.