Word.ws English Dictionary

applying oneself

applying oneself is the present participle and gerund of apply oneself.

Meaning of apply oneself

Verb

apply oneself (third-person singular simple present applies oneself, present participle applying oneself, simple past and past participle applied oneself)

  1. (idiomatic) Synonym of strive: to work hard, to complete an activity with good effort and focus.
    • His parents wish he had applied himself better while he was in school, but he couldn't give a toss.
    Synonyms:
    strive

Questions about applying oneself

What is applying oneself the present participle and gerund of?
Applying oneself is the present participle and gerund of apply oneself.

Words near applying oneself in the dictionary

  1. appls
  2. apply
  3. apply oneself
  4. applyed
  5. applying
  6. applying oneself
  7. applyingly
  8. applyings
  9. applyment
  10. appmt
  11. appmts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: applying oneself (page history and authors); apply oneself (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “applying oneself.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/applying_oneself. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.