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Glite Dictionary
to handle oneself

to handle oneself

43 5.4
To act calmly and correctly in difficult or stressful situations
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : comportarse
  • You have to show you can handle yourself.
  • handle yourself well
  • how you handle yourself
  • how to handle yourself

Examples

  • We've seen how you handle yourself.

    Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)

  • Congresswoman Bachmann has class, and she handled herself well with the BBC.

    Blog text (22)

  • - I am sure I could handle myself.

    Blue Crush (2002)

  • I like the way you handle yourself, you got class.

    Belle of the Nineties (1934)

  • I can handle myself if I have to.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Do you know how to handle yourself in certain situations?

    Blog text (3)

  • I'm well able to handle myself.

    The Descent (2005)

  • How a man handles himself on the football field says a lot about his character.

    Meet the Fockers (2004)

  • So that proves she knows how to handle herself.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • I'm impressed by how well you handle yourself during stressful situations.

Synonyms

to hold one's own
vsto handle oneself
  • Informal
5.0

Do as well as others in a difficult situation

stays composed and behaves appropriately under stress rather than competing

Antonyms

to lose it
  • Informal
289 7.5

Suddenly stop controlling your feelings and become very angry or upset

to panic
272 2.3

To feel sudden fear and lose the ability to think or act calmly

How Composed

to keep one's cool
  • Informal
30 3.4
to handle oneself
43 5.4
flustered
14 4.1
to lose one's cool
  • Informal
5.9

Surface Forms

handle oneself infinitive
handled oneself past
handled oneself past participle
handling oneself present participle
handles oneself third person singular

Morphology

handle + oneself

The meaning follows directly from 'handle' (manage/deal with) combined with the reflexive 'oneself' (one's own person), so it denotes managing or conducting one's own behavior. This reflexive construction is compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Handle oneself comes from the simple idea that handle means to hold or manage something and oneself means the person. Imagine holding your feelings and actions like a small object you must keep under control; that's why handle oneself means 'to behave calmly and manage your actions' in difficult situations.