itself

Word family

it·self /ɪtˈself/ S1 W1 pronoun [reflexive form of ‘it’]

1 XXused to show that a thing, organization, animal, or baby that does something is affected by its own action 自己，自身〔用于表示施动者受本身动作影响〕

The cat lay on the sofa, washing itself.

猫躺在沙发上把自己舔干。

The machine switches itself off when the process is complete.

工作程序结束，机器会自动关闭。

a small local enterprise that has transformed itself into a highly successful company

已发展为业绩喜人的公司的一家小型地方企业

2 IN CHARGE OFused to emphasize that you are talking about one particular thing, organization etc 自身，本身〔用以强调某事物等〕

We’ve checked the wiring, so the problem may be the television itself.

我们已检查过线路，所以问题也许出在电视机本身。

3 in/of itself ALONEconsidered separately from any other facts 本身，本质上

There is a slight infection in the lung, which in itself is not serious.

肺部有轻微的感染，这本身并不严重。

Examples from the Corpus

in/of itself• Modern-day sportswriting is full of itself.• The planning becomes an end in itself.• Most colleges have routinely sought to produce qualified student bodies whose mix is in itself an educational experience for those in it.• The program creates a copy of itself and causes it to execute; no user intervention is required.• Golf is not privileged and much as it likes to think of itself as such, Augusta is not a cathedral.• This awareness, in itself, is believed to generate sufficient grief to restore and ensure cooperation.• That evidence was, primafacie, of itself sufficient to justify the decision of the magistrate that the applicant should be committed.• Clearly, this aspect of our account of habituation is not enough in itself to explain the latent inhibition effect.

4 (all) by itself

a) ALONEalone 独自

Will the dog be safe left in the car by itself?

把狗独自留在车里安全吗？

b) HELPwithout help or without a person making it work 无外力的

The door seemed to open all by itself.

那扇门好像是自己打开的。

Examples from the Corpus

(all) by itself• The door's not going to close by itself.• Will the dog be safe left in the car by itself?• About twice as many, for depression by itself.• But then, I think the Nagumo Force can handle this operation all by itself.• It's in there by itself.• Perhaps now he could see why the drawing was in a space by itself.• The growth in members is meaningless all by itself.• Let the fatuous sun shine by itself and let's head for the moon.• The threat of lawsuits by itself is a major factor in driving up health care costs.• To begin with, by itself it doesn't produce anything.

5 (all) to itself ALONEnot shared with other things （全部）为自己所有；非共用

This idea deserves a chapter to itself.

这个观点值得单独写一章。

Examples from the Corpus

(all) to itself• This idea deserves a chapter to itself.• Even a predator as powerful as a tiger wants to avoid risk of damage to itself.• In the schools we have visited the curriculum does connect, both to kids and to itself.• It should create a voice that is unique to itself.• The family itself is a self-contained, almost private, institution - a world to itself.• Yggdrasil composed an exquisite sonnet that deserved to live for centuries, but kept it to itself.• Until the beginning of this year, Congress had not applied to itself a single civil-rights or workplace statute passed this century.• Under a 3600 rotation, a boson state-vector goes back to itself, not to its negative.• His only strategy is to take small steps and to carry the local vector parallel to itself over each step.