pull oneself together

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Australia):(file)

Verb

pull oneself together (third-person singular simple present pulls oneself together, present participle pulling oneself together, simple past and past participle pulled oneself together)

  1. (idiomatic, reflexive) To become mentally focused after a period of being unfocused; to regain control of oneself
    • 1908–1910 (date written; published 1910 October 18), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 6, in Howards End, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC:
      "Damn, damn, damnation!" he murmured, together with such other words as he had learnt from older men. Then he raised his hand to his forehead and said, "Oh, damn it all—" which meant something different. He pulled himself together. He drank a little tea, black and silent, that still survived upon an upper shelf. He swallowed some dusty crumbs of cake. Then he went back to the sitting-room, settled himself anew, and began to read a volume of Ruskin.

Synonyms

  • pull one's shit together

Translations

This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.