composure

Noun

1. Calmness of mind or temperament.
   • That all may see who hate us, how we seek Peace and composure […] - 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […];...
   • It would be also of great Use to us to form our deliberate Judgments of Persons and Things in the calmest and serenest Hours of Life, when the Passions of Nature are all silent, and the Mind enjoys its most perfect...
   • “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner. - 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering...

   Synonyms: coolness self-possession countenance

2. The act of composing
   • 1818, John Evelyn, Memoirs, edited by William Bray, London: Henry Colburn, 2nd edition, Volume I, entry for 10 March, 1685, p. 592, […] Signʳ Pietro […] had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.
3. Something which is composed; a composition.
4. Orderly adjustment; disposition.
   • […] from the various Composures and Combinations of these Corpusoles together, happen all the Varieties of the Bodies formed out of them […] - 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and...
5. Frame; make; temperament.
   • […] his composure must be rare indeed Whom these things can not blemish […] - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories,...
6. A combination; a union; a bond.
   • […] their fraction is more our wish than their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool could disunite. - c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William...