our
/aʊə
/possessive determiner
1Belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more other people previously mentioned or easily identified: Jo and I had our hair cut...
- We accept that we should have noted these references in our list of words mentioned.
- It puts him up much higher than he is accustomed to being, and as a bonus it allows him to play with our hair.
- The only thing that moved was our hair and clothes in the wind, and my falling tears.
1.1Belonging to or associated with people in general: when we hear a sound, our brains identify the source quickly...
- Anyone who votes for this act should not deserve our votes in the general election.
- Presumably all the nonsense must be produced by some part of our brain, so which part?
- This is possible because our brains adapt to create neural maps for new body parts.
2Used in formal contexts by a royal person or a writer or editor to refer to something belonging to or associated with himself or herself: we want to know what you, our readers, think...
- We are now asking our readers to fill in a letter and send it to the Prime Minister.
- To find out how our readers fared, we have followed four of them over the past six months.
- As a thank you to our readers we have some great competitions and giveaways lined up.
3 informal, chiefly Northern English Used with a name to refer to a relative, friend, or colleague of the speaker: really, she is a one, our Gillian...
- My cross belongs to our Tony.
Origin
Old English ūre, of Germanic origin; related to us and German unser.
Rhymes
- semi-Pelagianism
- semi-permanent
- semi-permanently
- semipermeable
- semi-precious
- semiprivate
- semi-pro
- semi-professional
- semi-prone position
- semiquaver
- semiquinone
- Semiramis
- semi-retired
- semi-retirement
- semi-rigid
- semi-skilled
- semi-skimmed
- semi-solid
- semispecies
- semi-submersible
- semisweet
- semi-synthetic
- incognizance
- incognizant
- incoherence