ours, poss. pron.
(aʊəz)
Forms: 4 ures, uris, urs, ors, 4–6 ouris, 4–5 ourys, owres, 5–6 oures, owris, 5 ourez, 7–9 our's, 4– ours.
[In form a double possessive, f. poss. pron. ur, ure, our + -es (cf. hers, yours, theirs); of northern origin: cf. the midl. and southern ouren, ourn; and see our poss. pron. 2.]
a. The absolute form of the possessive pronoun our, used when no n. follows, i.e. either absolutely or predicatively: Our one, our ones; that or those belonging to us; spec. = our regiment, chiefly in phr. ‘of ours’; also in transf. and extended uses. (= F. le nôtre, la nôtre, les nôtres, Ger. der, die, das unsere, unsrige.) † ours two, ours all = of us two, of us all.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 11784 (Cott.) Bot for he es godd mighti sene, Vres ar fallen don be-dene. Ibid. 27579 (Cott.) Þai haf in þaim sum hidd bunte Þat better mai þan ors [v.r. owres] be. 13.. Ibid. 12285 (Gött.) Ȝour sun has vres [Cott. urs nu, Tr. haþ oures] feld wid strijf. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 458 Ffor wel ye woot þat al this gold is oures [Camb. MS. ourys]. c 1440 Generydes 2989 This day was therys, Another shalbe ourez. c 1440 York Myst. xiii. 219 Þat childe was neuere oures two. 1533 Gau Richt Vay 45 He and al his is owris. 1656 Waller To my Lord Protector viii, Your highness, not for ours alone, But for the world's Protector shall be known. 1787 W. Dyott Diary Nov. (1907) I. 38 The company at dinner was..Captain Gladstanes, 57{supt}{suph} regiment; Captain Dalrymple, 42nd; Hodgson of ours, and myself. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 190 The second Current..inclosed between the Continent of America and ours. 1823 Spirit of Public Jrnls. M. DCCC. XXIII (1825) 1 What is't attracts the optic pow'rs Of Ensign gay, when fortune show'rs Down prospects of ‘a step’ in ‘ours’? 1847 Dickens Dombey (1848) xxi. 206 Edith Skewton, Sir,..married (at eighteen) Granger of Ours. 1847 Thackeray Van. Fair (1848) xxvii. 235 Run Simple (Ensign Simple, of Ours, my dear Amelia). 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 129 Ours, as has been truly said, is ‘a time of loud disputes and weak convictions’. 1877 G. M. Hopkins Let. 6 Jan. (1938) 94 Lancashire..from where a good many of Ours come. 1894 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Choice of Evils II. ii. 47 We have a young fellow..in ‘ours’, who has just saved the Colonel's life by a lucky shot. 1922 W. Cather (title) One of ours. 1975 Listener 25 Dec. 893/3 A short, highly professional story of a competent war time spy of Ours who goes back to the game. 1977 T. Heald Just Desserts i. 10 You know he was one of ours?.. Provided us with information, tip-offs, odds and ends. |
b. of ours: see of 44.
| 13.. Cursor M. 7465 (Gött.) A man of his again a man of ouris [Cott. ur], If ours may winne his in stours. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) i. xiii. 8 Muche more wold it semen skyle that he be one of ourys. 1526 Tindale 1 Cor. i. 2 All them that call on the name of oure lorde Iesus Christ in every place, both of theirs and of oures [Wyclif, of hem and oure]. 1578 Chr. Prayers in Priv. Prayers (1851) 540 This weak and feeble fortress of ours. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. i. vi, O shrieking beloved brother blockheads of mankind, let us close those wide mouths of ours. a 1903 Mod. This garden of ours has been neglected. |
† c. rare use. As the second of two possessives before a substantive, where our is the ordinary form.
| 1564 Jewel Apol. Ch. Eng. Ded., Whiche..youre and ours moste vertuous and learned soueraigne Ladie and Mastres shal see good cause to commende. |