bring (someone or oneself) to (do something)
bring (someone or oneself) to (do something)
1. To cause or inspire someone to take a particular action. A desire to help my community brought me to volunteer at the local soup kitchen. Your mother and I just cannot fathom what would bring you to disrespect us like that.
2. To muster the courage or resolve to do something, typically something unpleasant or frightening. In this usage, a reflexive pronoun is used after "bring." I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to eat snails.
See also: bring
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
bring someone to
to help someone return to consciousness. We worked to bring him to before he went into shock. He was finally brought to by the smelling salts.
See also: bring
bring someone to do something
to cause someone to do something; to encourage someone to do something. What brought you to do this? I was brought to do this by a guilty conscience.
See also: bring
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
bring to
1. Restore to consciousness, as in I'll see if these smelling salts will bring her to. Also see bring around, def. 2.
2. Cause a vessel to stop by heading into the wind or some other means. For example, As they neared the anchorage, they brought the boat to. This usage was first recorded in 1753.
See also: bring
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
bring to
v.
1. To cause a ship to turn toward the wind or come to a stop: Some lines were dragging overboard, so we brought the ship to and hauled them in again.
2. To cause someone to recover consciousness: I fainted, but the smelling salts brought me to right away.
See also: bring
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
- bring to do
- be in the soup
- inspire
- inspire (someone) with (something)
- inspire with
- inspire (something) in (someone)
- inspire in
- in the soup
- serve out
- imbue