she

oblique possessive her · possessive hers · reflexive herself · alternative shoo · alternative hoo · alternative shee

1. femininenominativepersonalsingularthird personThe female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.

   She seems a clever girl, your Isabel.

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   I asked Mary, but she said that she didn't know.

   After the cat killed a mouse, she left it on our doorstep.

   Goodly she entertaind those noble knights, / And brought them vp into her castle hall […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

   1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, published 9 September 2004, →ISBN, page 71

   His family, who live in West Des Moines, Iowa, have been left “devastated,” his owner Tracy Wolfe said in GWR press release. “He was just the best giant boy,” she added.

   2024 June 25, Issy Ronald, “Kevin, world’s tallest male dog, dies shortly after securing record”, in CNN

2. endearingfemininenominativepersonalsingularsometimesthird personA ship or boat.

   She is a beautiful boat, isn’t she?

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   She could do forty knots in good weather.

   The tanker is 25 years old but she is still very seaworthy.

   On the long 1 in 100 ascent from Staveley to Heath she nearly stalled, and having taken 67¼ min. to cover the 38.2 miles to Nottingham instead of the 51 min. scheduled she gave up the ghost, and came off the train.

   1960 April 28, O. S. Nock, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 271 ("she" refers to a locomotive)

3. datedendearingfemininenominativepersonalsingularsometimesthird personA country, or sometimes a city, province, planet, etc.

   She is a poor place, but has beautiful scenery and friendly people.

4. datedendearingfemininenominativepersonalpoeticsingularthird personA thing, especially a machine or other object, such as a car, a computer, or (poetically) a season.

   She only gets thirty miles to the gallon on the highway, but she’s durable.

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   Prodigal in everything, summer spreads her blessings with lavish unconcern, and waving her magic wand across the landscape of the world, she bids the sons of men to enter in and possess. Summer is the great consummation.

   1928, The Journal of the American Dental Association, page 765

   She is my 57 Chevy / My 57 Chevy runs so fine / No one can beat my 57 Chevy

   1977, “57 Chevy”, in Kansas City Slickers, performed by The Leopards

   The car’s engine revved up, and the back wheels screeched. Then she lurched forward at terrific speed.

   2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

5. femininenominativenonstandardpersonalsingularthird personA person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant (used in a work, along with or in place of he, as an indefinite pronoun).

   1 more example

   Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage.

   1990, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

   Synonyms: they

6. femininenominativepersonalsingularthird personCatholicismThe Catholic Church.

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   The Church is present in the world as a sign of unity for the entire human family. She recognizes today’s questions and challenges as the current setting in which to carry out her particular vocation of listening, dialogue and service, and of being responsive to everything concerning the lives of contemporary men and women.

   2026, Pope Leo XIV, chapter 1, in Magnifica humanitas

plural shes

1. A female.

   Pat is definitely a she.

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   Come, come, we know very well what all the matter is; but if one won’t, another will; so pretty a gentleman need never want a lady. I am sure, if I was you, I would see the finest she that ever wore a head hanged, before I would go for a soldier for her.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   he came home to find […] honest Swartz in her favourite amber-coloured satin, with turquoise bracelets, countless rings, flowers, feathers, and all sorts of tags and gimcracks, about as elegantly decorated as a she chimney-sweep on May-day.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   “They were all hairy-faced bulls but one,” he said, “and that one was a she, lighter in color even than this stranger,” and he chucked a thumb at Tarzan.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 199

   “Then,” I said, much amused, “you think that if you were mixed up in a crime, say a murder, you’d be able to spot the murderer right off?” “Of course I should. Mightn’t be able to prove it to a pack of lawyers. But I’m certain I’d know. I’d feel it in my fingertips if he came near me.” “It might be a ‘she’,” I suggested.

   1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 12

1. transitiveTo refer to (someone) using she/her pronouns.

   If somebody wants to go by “he,” continually “sheing” them [is invalidating].

   2019 April 16, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, Community-Based Participatory Research: Testimonios from Chicana/o Studies, University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 193

   1 more example

   In his conversation with the woman, Ari would 'he' himself using the masculine pronoun and she would reply by consistently 'sheing' him. Such examples share something about the emotional quality of language[…]

   2023 December 7, Laura L. Paterson, The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN

1. African-American VernacularSynonym of her.

   Synonyms: her

plural SHEs

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of standard hydrogen electrode.
2. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of superheavy element.
3. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of safety, health, environment.

   Synonyms: HSE EHS ()

4. abbreviationinitialismengineeringInitialism of selective harmonic elimination.

1. honorificHonorific alternative letter-case form of she, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.

1. A county of Handan, Hebei, China.

1. An ethnic group in southern China.
2. A language of the Hmong-Mien language family spoken by very few She people.