fend for themselves

Meanings

1. 1phraseidiom

   To look after themselves and provide what they need without help from anyone else.

   Grammar: The reflexive pronoun must match the subject: they fend for themselves, she fends for herself.

   Patterns

   • leave someone to fend for themselves
   • have to fend for yourself

   When the cook quit, we had to fend for ourselves in the kitchen.

   The baby birds must learn to fend for themselves.

   Many students move out and fend for themselves for the first time.

2. 2phraseidiomdisapproving

   To be left without support and forced to survive alone, often with the suggestion of neglect.

   Grammar: Often appears in the passive-like pattern be left to fend for themselves.

   Patterns

   • be left to fend for themselves

   After the factory closed, the workers were left to fend for themselves.

   Refugees were abandoned to fend for themselves in the cold.

   It is unfair to expect the children to fend for themselves all day.

Word forms

Common combinations

left to fend for themselves

The animals were left to fend for themselves after the owner moved away.

have to fend for themselves

On the trip, teenagers have to fend for themselves at lunch.

learn to fend for themselves

Young foxes learn to fend for themselves by autumn.

expected to fend for themselves

Small shops are expected to fend for themselves against giant chains.

forced to fend for themselves

The villagers were forced to fend for themselves during the floods.

Synonyms and how they differ

manage alone

Manage alone is neutral and plain, while fend for themselves hints at hardship or lack of help.

fare for themselves

This is rare and less natural, whereas fend for themselves is the standard idiom.

stand on their own two feet

This idiom stresses becoming independent as a positive goal, while fend for themselves often implies they were abandoned.

shift for themselves

This is an older, more British expression with almost the same meaning but a dated feel.

Opposites

Word family

fend verb

to look after or defend, mainly in set phrases

fend off phrasal verb

to defend yourself against an attack or question

self-reliant adjective

able to depend on yourself

self-sufficient adjective

able to supply your own needs

Commonly confused: fend for themselves or fend off?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “fend for themselves”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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