itself

pronoun

1. 1

   it; A thing as the object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject

   When the opportunity presented itself, no feasible course of action suggested itself (to us).

   The researchers posit that something they call the “hipster effect” asserts itself in human populations no matter how individualistic we imagine ourselves to be, because it’s individuality itself that sparks conformity.

   Nevertheless, Bumble, the dating app which once styled itself as a beacon of women’s empowerment because heterosexual women had to make the first move, appears to have missed the memo.

2. 2

   it; used to intensify the subject, especially to emphasize that it is the only participant in the predicate

   The door itself is quite heavy.

   Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ʰTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.

   So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

   Lenin's idea of party hegemony developed naturally into that of the party's 'leading role' in a socialist society-i.e. into a despotism based on the principle that the party always knows better than the community itself what are the latter's interests, needs, and even desires […]

3. 3

   archaicit; used to refer back to an earlier subject

   The oil by degrees gets covered with a curdy mass, which after some time settles to the bottom, while itself becomes limpid and colorless.

Forms

plural

themselves

feminine

herself

masculine

himself