"bring oneself to" meaning in English

See bring oneself to in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: brings oneself to [present, singular, third-person], bringing oneself to [participle, present], brought oneself to [participle, past], brought oneself to [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,brought>}} bring oneself to (third-person singular simple present brings oneself to, present participle bringing oneself to, simple past and past participle brought oneself to)
  1. (chiefly in the negative, with can or be able to) To force oneself to do something (usually unpleasant); to gather the courage to do something. [with infinitive] Synonyms: have the heart Translations (force oneself to do something): få sig selv til (Danish), få seg til (Norwegian Bokmål)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "brings oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bringing oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "brought oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "brought oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,brought>"
      },
      "expansion": "bring oneself to (third-person singular simple present brings oneself to, present participle bringing oneself to, simple past and past participle brought oneself to)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"to\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Danish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              29
            ]
          ],
          "text": "He could not bring himself to ask her.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              41,
              56
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I know what to do, but will I be able to bring myself to do it?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To force oneself to do something (usually unpleasant); to gather the courage to do something."
      ],
      "id": "en-bring_oneself_to-en-verb-iBPKXqDp",
      "info_templates": [
        {
          "args": {
            "1": "en",
            "2": "infinitive"
          },
          "expansion": "[with infinitive]",
          "extra_data": {
            "tags": [
              "infinitive"
            ]
          },
          "name": "+obj"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "can",
          "can#English"
        ],
        [
          "be able to",
          "be able to#English"
        ],
        [
          "force",
          "force"
        ],
        [
          "unpleasant",
          "unpleasant"
        ],
        [
          "gather",
          "gather"
        ],
        [
          "courage",
          "courage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the negative, with can or be able to) To force oneself to do something (usually unpleasant); to gather the courage to do something. [with infinitive]"
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in the negative",
        "with can or be able to"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "have the heart"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "lang_code": "da",
          "sense": "force oneself to do something",
          "word": "få sig selv til"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "lang_code": "nb",
          "sense": "force oneself to do something",
          "word": "få seg til"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bring oneself to"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "brings oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bringing oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "brought oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "brought oneself to",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,brought>"
      },
      "expansion": "bring oneself to (third-person singular simple present brings oneself to, present participle bringing oneself to, simple past and past participle brought oneself to)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs formed with \"to\"",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Danish translations",
        "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              29
            ]
          ],
          "text": "He could not bring himself to ask her.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              41,
              56
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I know what to do, but will I be able to bring myself to do it?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To force oneself to do something (usually unpleasant); to gather the courage to do something."
      ],
      "info_templates": [
        {
          "args": {
            "1": "en",
            "2": "infinitive"
          },
          "expansion": "[with infinitive]",
          "extra_data": {
            "tags": [
              "infinitive"
            ]
          },
          "name": "+obj"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "can",
          "can#English"
        ],
        [
          "be able to",
          "be able to#English"
        ],
        [
          "force",
          "force"
        ],
        [
          "unpleasant",
          "unpleasant"
        ],
        [
          "gather",
          "gather"
        ],
        [
          "courage",
          "courage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the negative, with can or be able to) To force oneself to do something (usually unpleasant); to gather the courage to do something. [with infinitive]"
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in the negative",
        "with can or be able to"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "have the heart"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "lang_code": "da",
      "sense": "force oneself to do something",
      "word": "få sig selv til"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "lang_code": "nb",
      "sense": "force oneself to do something",
      "word": "få seg til"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bring oneself to"
}

Download raw JSONL data for bring oneself to meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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