Dictionary

theirselves en · PRON

Pronunciation

• /ˈðɐ.sɛlz/ (Northumbria)

Etymology

From their + -selves, patterned on ourselves and similar terms.

Meanings

1. (Ireland, UK, alt-of, alternative, dialectal) Alternative form of themselves.
   alt of themselves
   • Or would they have it believed, that there is in their ſelves ſome ſuperior ſanctity, ſome peculiar privilege, by which theſe things are lawful to them, which are unlawful to all the world beſides? 1776, Jeremy Bentham, “A Short Review of the Declaration”, in John Lind, An Anſwer to the Declaration of the American Congress, London: Thomas Cadell, page 121:
   • Horace: "Look, Jasper! Do you supposed they disguised theirselves?" 1961, Bill Peet, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Walt Disney Productions:
   • Was anyone hurted? Sure, they were just trailin' theirselves off the ground. Ye wud have died larfin'. There's Jimmy Hanlon was never his own man since, and I had me nose broke on me—I find it yet—and some says there was a wee girl from Tanderagee got herself killed. 1915, Charles L Graves, Humours of Irish life, pages 241-242:

Forms