Self \Self\, n.; pl. {Selves}. 1. The individual as the object of his own reflective consciousness; the man viewed by his own cognition as the subject of all his mental phenomena, the agent in his own activities, the subject of his own feelings, and the possessor of capacities and character; a person as a distinct individual; a being regarded as having personality. ``Those who liked their real selves.'' --Addison.
A man's self may be the worst fellow to converse with in the world. --Pope.
The self, the I, is recognized in every act of intelligence as the subject to which that act belongs. It is I that perceive, I that imagine, I that remember, I that attend, I that compare, I that feel, I that will, I that am conscious. --Sir W. Hamilton.
2. Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness; as, self is his whole aim.
3. Personification; embodiment. [Poetic.]
She was beauty's self. --Thomson.
Note: Self is united to certain personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives to express emphasis or distinction. Thus, for emphasis; I myself will write; I will examine for myself; thou thyself shalt go; thou shalt see for thyself; you yourself shall write; you shall see for yourself; he himself shall write; he shall examine for himself; she herself shall write; she shall examine for herself; the child itself shall be carried; it shall be present itself. It is also used reflexively; as, I abhor myself; thou enrichest thyself; he loves himself; she admires herself; it pleases itself; we walue ourselves; ye hurry yourselves; they see themselves. Himself, herself, themselves, are used in the nominative case, as well as in the objective. ``Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples.'' --John iv. 2.
Note: self is used in the formation of innumerable compounds, usually of obvious signification, in most of which it denotes either the agent or the object of the action expressed by the word with which it is joined, or the person in behalf of whom it is performed, or the person or thing to, for, or towards whom or which a quality, attribute, or feeling expressed by the following word belongs, is directed, or is exerted, or from which it proceeds; or it denotes the subject of, or object affected by, such action, quality, attribute, feeling, or the like; as, self-abandoning, self-abnegation, self-abhorring, self-absorbed, self-accusing, self-adjusting, self-balanced, self-boasting, self-canceled, self-combating, self-commendation, self-condemned, self-conflict, self-conquest, self-constituted, self-consumed, self-contempt, self-controlled, self-deceiving, self-denying, self-destroyed, self-disclosure, self-display, self-dominion, self-doomed, self-elected, self-evolved, self-exalting, self-excusing, self-exile, self-fed, self-fulfillment, self-governed, self-harming, self-helpless, self-humiliation, self-idolized, self-inflicted, self-improvement, self-instruction, self-invited, self-judging, self-justification, self-loathing, self-loving, self-maintenance, self-mastered, self-nourishment, self-perfect, self-perpetuation, self-pleasing, self-praising, self-preserving, self-questioned, self-relying, self-restraining, self-revelation, self-ruined, self-satisfaction, self-support, self-sustained, self-sustaining, self-tormenting, self-troubling, self-trust, self-tuition, self-upbraiding, self-valuing, self-worshiping, and many others.
Selves \Selves\, n., pl. of {Self}.
They do such bad things, and on some technicality, you let them go." "Honestly," Brennan said. "You in the media ought to be ashamed of your selves to call the provisions and the guarantees of the Bill of Rights `technicalities.'
Lower interest rates have encouraged hopes of a recovery in the property market and increase the attractions of high-yielding property shares. The smaller company lists are their normal eccentric selves.
"The sharpness of the recognition that you're aging, the discrepancy between mental and physical selves, becomes harder and harder to maintain." Men and women may cope with these psychological crises differently.
Like Woodrow Wilson, he's an idealist who believes we can be true to our own best selves in a brutal world.
In that same room we witness the old parental rows and feel the children's reactions and their older selves' bitter recall in ghostly interpenetration.