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Glite Dictionary
to come to oneself

to come to oneself

1 7.3
Wake up and become calm after fainting or shock
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : recobrar el sentido
  • When she came to herself again, it was night and she was alone.

Examples

  • In a few seconds, he came to himself.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • When she abruptly came to herself, a policeman and a crowd of spectators were standing around her.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Then he came to himself and began to do the things he knew he was expected to do.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Tom came to himself with a start and pulled away.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • 17 But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!'

    Academic text (2015)

  • When she'd come to herself and realized that she had been saved, the girl wept bitterly, as if she'd lost her heart's desire.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Three or four drinks thereafter, he must have dozed, for he came to himself suddenly and unpleasantly when a nightmare jolted him awake.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • When she came to oneself again, it was night and she was alone.

  • Tom came to oneself with a start and pulled away.

  • When she abruptly came to oneself, a policeman and a crowd of spectators were standing around her.

Synonyms

to come to
vsto come to oneself
311 3.8

Wake up after being unconscious

includes regaining calm or composure as well as physical waking
to pull oneself together
vsto come to oneself
  • Informal
81 5.1

Get control of your feelings and calm down after being upset

often happens naturally, recovering calm or consciousness without deliberate effort

Antonyms

faint
38 2.7

Feeling weak and about to lose consciousness

How Conscious

to revive
71 4.1
awake
24 2.0
to come to oneself
1 7.3
to stir
75 1.0

Surface Forms

come to oneself infinitive
coming to oneself present participle
comes to oneself third person singular
came to oneself past
come to oneself past participle

Morphology

come + to + oneself

The meaning 'to recover consciousness or composure' is directly derivable from 'come' (arrive at a state) + 'to' (into) + 'oneself' (one's own self) — literally 'arrive back to oneself' — which a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer. This construction has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g., French 'revenir à soi', Spanish 'volver en sí'), supporting its transparency.

Etymology

Come to oneself paints the picture of a person who has fainted or been shocked and then comes back to oneself. After this return they wake up or calm down. So it means 'to recover consciousness or composure'.