selves

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Related to selves: ostial, fluctuant, self-willed, schizonticide, dyssynergy

(one's) good self

1. old-fashioned Oneself. Typically used to add polite emphasis. It has been so lovely to spend time with Lucy and your good self. You must stay a fortnight next time. I hope she does not involve her good self in this scheme. I hadn't seen his good self in such a long time, but he seemed well.

2. The virtuous, morally upright part of one's identity or personality. It took many years of self-reflection to get to the point where my good self was making more decisions than my bad self. I lecture the kids all the time about listening to their good selves, but it hasn't done much to keep them from getting into trouble. I doubt that even the worst man still has his good self.

a shadow of (someone's or something's) former self

A person, group, place, etc., that has become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Tom's been nothing but a shadow of his former self ever since the accident. His bubbly, outgoing personality is gone, replaced by constant gloom and cynicism. The mass emigration of workers from the town during the recession has left it a mere shadow of its former self. The company used to be at the top of the industry, but after years of bad decisions and poor management, it's little more than a shadow of its former self now.

a shadow of (someone's or something's) old self

A person, group, place, etc., that has become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Tom's been nothing but a shadow of his old self ever since the accident. His bubbly, outgoing personality is gone, replaced by constant gloom and cynicism. The mass emigration of workers from the town during the recession has left it a mere shadow of its old self. The company used to be at the top of the industry, but after years of bad decisions and poor management, it's little more than a shadow of its old self now.

a shell of (someone's or something's) former self

A person, group, place, etc., that has become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Tom's been nothing but a shell of his former self ever since the accident. His bubbly, outgoing personality is gone, replaced by constant gloom and cynicism. The mass emigration of workers from the town during the recession has left it a mere shell of its former self. The company used to be at the top of the industry, but after years of bad decisions and poor management, it's little more than a shell of its former self now.

a shell of (someone's or something's) old self

A person, group, place, etc., that has become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Tom's been nothing but a shell of his old self since the accident. His bubbly, outgoing personality has been replaced by constant gloom and cynicism. The mass emigration of workers from the country during the recession has left it a mere shell of its old self. The company used to be at the top of the industry, but after years of bad decisions and poor management, it's little more than a shell of its old self now.

be a ghost of (someone's or something's) former self

To be weaker or inferior in comparison to how someone or something was previously, often due to negative circumstances. After suffering from a prolonged illness, Sharon was a ghost of her former self. This town is a ghost of its former self after so many of its residents have moved away.

be a shadow of (someone's or something's) former self

To be dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Sharon was a shadow of her former self after battling such an aggressive illness for so many years. This town is a shadow of its former self after so many of its residents have moved away.

be a shadow of (someone's or something's) old self

To be dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often following some traumatic event or negative circumstances. Sharon was a shadow of her old self after battling such an aggressive illness for so many years. This town is a shadow of its old self after so many of its residents have moved away.

become a shadow of (someone's or something's) former self

To become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often due to negative circumstances. Sharon has become a shadow of her former self after battling such an aggressive disease for so long. This town became a shadow of its former self after so many local businesses closed down.

become a shadow of (someone's or something's) old self

To become dramatically less healthy, vivacious, or robust, often due to negative circumstances. Sharon has become a shadow of her old self after battling such an aggressive disease for so long. This town became a shadow of its old self after so many local businesses closed down.

See also: become, of, old, shadow

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References in periodicals archive ?

Infection and inflammation cross the bridge between selves in the opposite direction.

First self

Invisible Man is more aware of "that progress goo" that a transcendental history requires, and hence the possibility of teleological movement and linear temporality is challenged: "Not only could you travel upward toward success but you could travel downward as well; up and down, in retreat as well as in advance, crabways and crosswa ys and around in a circle, meeting your old selves coming and going and perhaps all at the same time." This "shattering" of his knowledge systems produces in part a realization of the immense possibility involved in being able to change his "name and never [be] challenged even once" (510).

Plunging (outside of) history: naming and self-possession in Invisible Man

They analyzed patterns of brain damage in 29 previously published cases of disordered selves. Injury to the frontal region of the right hemisphere occurred in 28 people, compared with left-frontal damage in 14.

Self-serve brains: personal identity veers to the right hemisphere

However, as Michael Schoenfeldt's Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England makes clear, it is still quite possible to say important and original things about both bodies and selves, and about the ways in which early modern writers imagined each in terms of the other.

Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England: Physiology and Inwardness in Spenser, Shakespeare, Herbert, and Milton. (Reviews)

To Powers, the central conflict in James is that between perceptive artists and their conventional surroundings, and the artists' goal is to remain true to themselves, to admit honestly their faults and limitations, and to come to a compromise with their surroundings without giving up their "essential" selves. The result is a redemptive vision of utopian social transformation through artistic self-acceptance.

"I'm not the boy you want": sexuality, "race," and thwarted revolution in Baldwin's 'Another Country.'

Guernsey uses this observation to argue against Stephen Greenblatt and others who can f ind only socially constructed selves in the Renaissance, only what amount to Winnicottian "false selves." For Guernsey, Herbert's poetry reveals that the development of a mature "true self" was possible then despite often unfavorable circumstances.

The Pulse of Praise: Form as Second Self in the Poetry of George Herbert & Writing the Flesh: The Herbert Family Dialogue

"The Afro-American Woman's Emerging Selves." Journal of Black Psychology 13.1 (1986): 1-11.

Self-delusion and self-sacrifice in Nella Larsen's 'Quicksand.'

On Gay's own introductory say-so, its purview encompasses self-consciousness, the self's concern with other selves, "the way the self perceives, and responds to, the world" (p.