Meaning & use
fending for yourself
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Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
Taking care of yourself and getting what you need without help from anyone else.
Grammar: Used after verbs like be, get used to, or learn; the pronoun changes with the subject: fending for myself, fending for themselves.
Patterns
- be fending for yourself
- learn to fend for yourself
- get used to fending for yourself
After his parents moved abroad, he was fending for himself for the first time.
The program teaches teenagers to fend for themselves before they leave home.
She had been fending for herself since she was eighteen, so living alone was easy.
phrasefixed phrase
Managing alone in a difficult situation without support from other people.
Grammar: Often suggests hardship or a lack of help; the pronoun must match the person doing the managing.
Patterns
- leave someone fending for themselves
- be left fending for yourself
When the funding stopped, the small clinics were left fending for themselves.
New staff are often left fending for themselves in their first week.
Common combinations
- fend for yourself
- You are old enough to fend for yourself now.
- left fending for themselves
- The workers were left fending for themselves after the factory closed.
- learn to fend for yourself
- Traveling alone taught her to fend for herself.
- used to fending for yourself
- He is used to fending for himself on long trips.
Synonyms and how they differ
- looking after yourself
- Focuses on your own care and health, while fending for yourself stresses getting by without anyone's help.
- coping alone
- Emphasizes dealing with a hard situation by yourself; fending for yourself is broader and can simply mean providing for your own needs.
- self-reliant
- An adjective describing a person's character, not the activity of managing day to day.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fending for yourself or fending off? fending for yourself or defending?
fending for yourself vs fending off
Fending off means keeping something away, like a cold or an attack, while fending for yourself means providing for your own needs.
fending for yourself vs defending
Defending means protecting someone or something from attack, not managing alone without help.
Practice
After her parents left, Maya had to learn to fend ___ herself.
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is 'fend for yourself', meaning to manage without help. 'Fend to' and 'fend with' are not used in this meaning, and 'fend at' is not a phrase at all.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fending for yourself”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.