APPLY (ONESELF) Synonyms: 84 Similar and Opposite Words

apply (oneself)

verb

Definition of apply (oneself)

as in to buckle (down)

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for apply (oneself)

Verb

Scott needed just 11 pitches in a scoreless ninth to close out Friday’s victory.

— Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 18 July 2026
Hunt was legendary for his willingness to crowd the plate, setting a Modern Era record with 50 hit-by-pitches in a single season in 1971 while with the Montreal Expos, where he was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

— Peter Chawaga, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026

Definition of pitch in

Verb

As the sides dig in heading into the final months before a potential lockout, here’s the data and the viewpoints from both sides.

— Maury Brown, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Leo tells me, surveying the horrific damage that people ask him to dig in the mud for their photos, their keepsakes, not their TVs or appliances.

— Josh Fox, IndieWire, 17 July 2026

Definition of dig in

Verb

Magadan had a deadly reputation in the Stalin era, as a hub for Gulag mines where political prisoners slaved sometimes to death and produced gold and other minerals in the process.

— Ian Frazier, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026
Po’s journey begins while slaving away at his boring noodle job on the day the Dragon Warrior is to be chosen.

— Skyler Trepel, Entertainment Weekly, 25 Nov. 2025

Definition of slave

Verb

Teams will use the five-week gap between the races in Japan and Miami to knuckle down at their factories and develop car upgrades that could boost their fortunes upon returning to the track in May.

— Luke Smith, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026
In survival mode, many brands have been forced to knuckle down and fortify their business strategies, in hopes of setting them up for success against a difficult backdrop.

— Madeleine Schulz, Vogue, 10 Mar. 2026

Definition of knuckle down

Verb

Since the Computing Community Consortium hosted its first conference on thermodynamic computing in 2019, a small community of researchers has been laboring to put it into practice.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 15 July 2026
The former offices of the saltpeter mines, which produced the main ingredients used in gunpowder and fertilizer, evoke the past, when thousands of people labored at processing caliche, a nitrate-bearing rock.

— Cristina Dorador, The Dial, 14 July 2026

Definition of labor

Verb

To heat-style, blow-dry curtain bangs away from the face, sweeping them from side to side with a paddle brush.

— Ariel Wodarcyk, InStyle, 9 June 2026
Brian Cashman gets it all the time, but good, from Yankee fans; for them, banging away at Cashman on social media feels like the real national pastime.

— Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 16 Aug. 2025

Definition of bang away

Verb

In the galley, Joy struggles to accommodate two sheets of Suzanne’s preferences and one sheet of Sugar Baby’s.

— Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 21 July 2026
Day to day, as the city grows, there’s also the question of traffic, which snarls the city as public transit initiatives have repeatedly struggled.

— Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 21 July 2026

Definition of struggle

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applying (to)

apply (oneself)

apply (to)

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“Apply (oneself).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apply%20%28oneself%29. Accessed 23 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of apply (oneself)

verb

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