to bestir oneself
- phrasal verb
- /bɪˈstɜr wʌnˈsɛlf/
- Formal
:
animarse
- After a long day of work, she decided to bestir herself and go for a run to clear her mind.
Examples
-
Instead, brief silence was followed by the scrabbling of a key in the lock; and, before I could bestir myself enough to rise from my bed of misery and confront the intruder, a stumpy figure in a hooded cloak had slipped inside and closed the door.
Fiction book (1998) -
In a while, I thought, I will have to move, somehow bestir myself, to ease this pain.
Fiction book (1990) -
Feeling lethargic, he knew it was time to bestir himself and tackle the chores that had piled up.
-
As the sun began to rise, she had to bestir herself from her cozy bed to start her morning routine.
Synonyms
481
1.8
To begin doing something, for example a task or meeting
422
2.3
To start doing something or to leave
62
1.6
Start being active or hurry to do something
36
3.5
To start moving or begin working on something
12
5.8
Start working quickly and with energy
10
3.9
To work hard and give your full attention to a task
1
9.9
To make an effort to start doing something when you feel lazy
Antonyms
How Active
33
4.1
89
4.2
- Formal
- Informal
62
1.6
75
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to make an effort to become active' is directly compositional from 'bestir' (to rouse or stir into action) combined with the reflexive 'oneself' (directing the action back to the subject). The be- + verb morphology and reflexive construction is a common, regular pattern cross-linguistically, so learners who know the constituent meanings can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Bestir oneself comes from adding the small word be- to stir, so it literally meant 'make yourself move'. Imagine a person lying still who forces their body to stir and get going. So, the phrase now means 'to make an effort to become active'.