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compose
in a sentence
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  • I use an electronic keyboard to help compose music.
  • I couldn't copy her essays, and I lacked the factual and stylistic know-how to compose my own.   (source)
  • On the reverse side was a handwritten composition: "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Turtle Wexler.   (source)
    composition = written essay
  • They'd been learning about composers in school, where despite his obvious stupidity, Rudy excelled.   (source)
    composers = people who write music
  • Near the entrance they painted a motto composed by Naeem Khan: WE ARE COMMITTED TO BUILD FOR YOU THE CALL OF THE NEW ERA.   (source)
    composed = written
  • Roy had mentally prepared himself to be blindfolded and tied up again—he'd even composed a short speech for the occasion.   (source)
  • Finally, a letter arrived, composed by Harvey and dictated to a nurse from his hospital bed.   (source)
  • Homework — compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf!   (source)
    compose = write
  • "You understand that if they don't have those books to study from, I'll have to fail them in both reading and composition, since I plan..."   (source)
    composition = writing
  • Now I was lucky to get a D on a composition.   (source)
    composition = written essay
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  • She's been nagging at him to compose a poem to the nape of her neck, or to some other part of her anatomy, as is the practice among the more foppish of the court lovers, but his talents do not lie in that direction.   (source)
    compose = write
  • Evenings, they listened to scratchy library records Henry brought home, music composed by Russian generals: Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich.   (source)
    composed = written
  • We wrote compositions.   (source)
    compositions = essays
  • I shall compose an Ode.   (source)
    compose = write
  • Mrs. Grace Merriweather had composed an original pageant entitled Maycomb County: Ad Astra Per Aspera, and I was to be a ham.   (source)
    composed = written
  • Brinker Hadley could compose his Shortest War Poem Ever Written   (source)
    compose = write
  • Piped in from who knew where played the background music of Wondertropolis' free fall into decay. ... a composition on infinite repeat, featuring lyrics Redd had written herself, which sang her praises as Wonderland's savior.   (source)
    composition = musical work
  • She posted the data directly to internal servers and composed an e-mail to Dr. Kapoor.   (source)
    composed = wrote
  • The poem Father composed for my birthday is too nice to keep to myself.   (source)
  • Maybe he writes up here, composes bad poetry.   (source)
    composes = writes
  • I was trying to decide between "You Send Me" and an original composition, "I'm Your Poetry God, Baby," when a voice yelled, "HEY!"   (source)
    composition = written work
  • Compose sonnets?   (source)
    compose = write
  • The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator.   (source)
    composed = written
  • He wrote regularly for The Hourly Radio, composed feely scenarios, and had the happiest knack for slogans and hypnopaedic rhymes.   (source)
    composed = wrote
  • The nature of Mr. Tostoff's composition eluded me, because just as it began my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.   (source)
    composition = written music
  • It is my belief, however, that had I attempted a different order of composition, my faculties would not have been found so pointless and inefficacious.   (source)
    composition = writing
  • He composed heroic songs and began to write many a tale of enchantment and knightly adventure.   (source)
    composed = wrote
  • But today he could not seem to get in the mood necessary for such compositions.†   (source)
  • Having studied the intent of the composer, collaborated closely with his conductor, trained his dancers, overseen the design of the costumes and sets, Gorsky also walked his ranks in the minutes before battle.†   (source)
  • Who is the composer of Rhapsody in Blue?†   (source)
  • Over the next half hour, Langdon showed them slides of artwork by Michelangelo, Albrecht Dürer, Da Vinci, and many others, demonstrating each artist's intentional and rigorous adherence to the Divine Proportion in the layout of his compositions.†   (source)
  • I hadn't realized that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn't predicted.†   (source)
  • They were proud of me because Masterji said I wrote the best English compositions, and they had me translate instruction manuals and write school or job applications.†   (source)
  • A modern novelist could no more write characters and plots than a modern composer could a Mozart symphony.†   (source)
  • His handwriting is famously illegible; student compositions are regularly returned stamped with tan rings of coffee, sometimes golden rings of Scotch.†   (source)
  • But, writes the psychologist Michael Howe in his book Genius Explained, by the standards of mature composers, Mozart's early works are not outstanding.†   (source)
  • I feel wonder, I feel awe, like a composer first discovering the works of Mozart.†   (source)
  • Then he gives me special compositions to write and makes me read them to the class because of all I learned from him last year.†   (source)
  • JAMES MCBRIDE, B.A., Oberlin College; M.S.J., Journalism, Columbia University; writer, composer, saxophonist.†   (source)
  • Hebron prided itself on the number of scholars, artists, musicians, philosophers, writers and composers it sheltered as citizens and long-term residents.†   (source)
  • "I get wind of much misplaced criticism, by men as clever even as Burnham, because of impressions from incomplete work and undeveloped compositions," he wrote.†   (source)
  • Nineteenth-century composer Richard Wagner went back to the Germanic myths for the material for his operas, and whether the results are good or bad in either historic or musical terms, the impulse to work with his tribal myths is completely understandable.†   (source)
  • His marks often suffered in school because, although he did well in written tests and compositions, he was terrible in oral recitations, speeches, anything that required the spotlight of attention to be focused on him.†   (source)
  • Then some Joplin, who's good, and then some Aaron Copland, who Mr. Russell said was his favorite composer even though he didn't write anything for a flutist.†   (source)
  • Standing backstage, listening to other kids play scratchy violin and clunky piano compositions, I'd almost chickened out.†   (source)
  • Over the years, bands like El Chicano, Tierra, Los Lobos, Con Safos, Los Illegals and Califas carried forth the people's message through Latinized jazz-rock compositions, and later in punk and traditional corrido forms.†   (source)
  • I hastily dressed and put my compositions and a few other things in a bag.†   (source)
  • B-L— 0 C-H. Swiss-born composer who served as director of the Cleveland Institute of Music.†   (source)
  • On one of his last trips to Europe he brought back the first phonograph with a trumpet speaker, along with many of the latest popular records as well as those by his favorite classical composers.†   (source)
  • I don't remember the rest of the interview except that Dr. Udvarhelyi honed in on classical music and we talked for a long time, maybe an hour, about various composers and their different styles of music.†   (source)
  • No more wonderful critical schools of experts to determine rationally where each composer had succeeded or failed.†   (source)
  • The old myths and sagas from heathen times were rediscovered, and composers all over Europe began to incorporate folk melodies into their compositions in an attempt to bridge the gap between folk music and art music.†   (source)
  • He stared at the equations until they melded together, and then he began to scrawl furiously, a composer with a symphony moving too fast for his fingers.†   (source)
  • By high school, the nuns were reading her stories and compositions out loud in English class.†   (source)
  • He had only one tape of a Russian composer, the Nutcracker Suite, and had brought that along with four Bachs.†   (source)
  • Two unattached composers.†   (source)
  • There would normally be more than one choreographer, set designer, lighting designer and composer for any Chinese ballet, and the final product always looked as if the various parts didn't quite fit together.†   (source)
  • But Dexter and Ted, who had started the band during their junior year of high school, preferred their original compositions, the biggest and most ambitious of which were the potato songs.†   (source)
  • Later he moved on to darker, wilder versions, and at the very end he stopped playing things they recognized altogether, and as he held the long notes he wept, and no one needed to tell Misha and Svetya, even thick-headed as they were, that at last he'd become the composer he'd always wanted to be.†   (source)
  • He pushes the note pages aside and opens the black-and-white-speckled cover of his "A-Plus Compositions" notebook.†   (source)
  • This is how it goes: A certain Dembscher owed Beethoven fifty florins, and when the composer, who was chronically short of funds, reminded him of the debt, Dembscher heaved a mournful sigh and said,Muss es sein?†   (source)
  • "He's my favorite composer."†   (source)
  • I only wrote about two compositions the whole term," I said.†   (source)
  • Composer and pianist JOAN TOWER was born in New York and spent her youth in Bolivia where her father worked as a mining engineer.†   (source)
  • The one who called himself a composer was banging away the one wild piece he seemed to know on the out-of-tune piano, striking the keyboard with fists and elbows and filling in other effects in a bass voice that moaned like a bear in agony.†   (source)
  • Because of the sensitivity of the computer, rough percentage compositions could also be determined.†   (source)
  • His favorite composer was Handel, but he adored also the music of Bach and in 1764 had taken tremendous delight in hearing the boy Mozart perform on the organ.†   (source)
  • She found hundreds of Zalas—from an Italian athlete to a composer in Argentina.†   (source)
  • In the living room, the music she'd found on Grace's radio had given way to a learned discussion about some composer she'd never heard of.†   (source)
  • It was his music, his compositions.†   (source)
  • He's making . me memorize the life works of his favorite composers….†   (source)
  • And I remember once asking why the composers were all mundanes.†   (source)
  • SOME HISTORICAL NOTES The "ethnic" compositions of Rwanda and Burundi, past and present, aren't precisely known.†   (source)
  • The First Lady is having a stage set up in the East Room, to allow performances by some of America's most notable musicians, such as cellist and composer Pablo Casals and singer Grace Bumbry.†   (source)
  • He was a composer who wrote old-fashioned scores for motion pictures, and modern symphonies for sparse audiences.†   (source)
  • Composer.†   (source)
  • She didn't miss a note, but the feeling in the playing was utterly perverse to what it should have been, as though she were critiquing rather than exploring the compositions.†   (source)
  • Should it happen that I am called to court, why, I will want to offer the king my very best compositions, songs I have sung a thousand times that are certain to please.†   (source)
  • They had resulted in some extremely interesting compositions.†   (source)
  • He is my favorite composer.'†   (source)
  • Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents.†   (source)
  • I hated the assignments to turn out "compositions," and went at them like heavy labor, turning out leaden, lackluster paragraphs that were agonies for teachers to read and for me to write.†   (source)
  • That night I chose twenty of the most impressive titles written by the most impressive composers.†   (source)
  • A man is the player and the instrument in one, and most of the time he's the composer, note by note.†   (source)
  • …by the poet Adasay that they resembled at least six different things (he was always lavish with his similes): a migration of birds, bright birds, across a waveless ocean of milk; a procession of musical notes through the mind of a slightly mad composer; a school of those deep-swimming fish whose bodies are whorls and runnels of light, circling about some phosphorescent plant within a cold and sea-deep pit; the Spiral Nebula, suddenly collapsing upon its center; a storm, each drop of…†   (source)
  • Listening is an art to be cultivated; and the symphonies of the desert or the forest demand a finer ear than do the symphonies of the composers.†   (source)
  • There was to be a first performance of a violin sonata by a young composer, a pupil of Taneiev's, and a trio by Tchaikovsky.†   (source)
  • Then tell me if it is logical that the Martians should have: one, leaded-glass windows; two, cupolas; three, porch swings; four, an instrument that looks like a piano and probably is a piano; and five, if you look closely through this telescopic lens here, is it logical that a Martian composer would have published a piece of music titled, strangely enough, 'Beautiful Ohio'?†   (source)
  • In its place Minimus, the poet, had composed another song which began: Animal Farm, Animal Farm, Never through me shalt thou come to harm!   (source)
    composed = written
  • Above were the search laboratories and the padded rooms in which Sound-Track Writers and Synthetic Composers did the delicate work.   (source)
    composers = writers
  • She could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad.   (source)
    composing = writing
  • The general feeling on the farm was well expressed in a poem entitled Comrade Napoleon, which was composed by Minimus and which ran as follows:   (source)
    composed = written
  • The new tune which was to be the theme-song of Hate Week (the Hate Song, it was called) had already been composed and was being endlessly plugged on the telescreens.   (source)
  • Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who had a remarkable gift for composing songs and poems, sat on the front of the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round them, and the other pigs sitting behind.   (source)
    composing = writing
  • Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator.   (source)
    composed = written
  • Afterwards there were recitations of poems composed in Napoleon's honor, and a speech by Squealer giving particulars of the latest increases in the production of foodstuffs, and on occasion a shot was fired from the gun.   (source)
  • ...there might be an infrequent call for the finer productions of her handiwork. Yet the taste of the age, demanding whatever was elaborate in compositions of this kind, did not fail to extend its influence over our stern progenitors, who had cast behind them so many fashions which it might seem harder to dispense with.   (source)
    compositions = things created with care
  • I handed them my compositions, my fountain pen and my watch, everything I wanted to take with me.†   (source)
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  • The group is composed of students who live in the same apartment building.
  • The ACT was composed of four sections: math, English, science and reading.   (source)
  • They are one of the new regiments, composed almost entirely of young fellows just called up.   (source)
  • ...this preliminary list was composed of those accused of the worst crimes, including list-topper Hideki Tojo, mastermind of Pearl Harbor and the man on whose orders POWs had been enslaved and starved, and Masahuru Homma, who was responsible for the Bataan Death March.   (source)
  • Given the treacherous nature of the local topography (most of the cliffs that riddle the region are composed of Navajo sandstone, a crumbly stratum that erodes into smooth, bulging precipices) and Ruess's penchant for dangerous climbing, this is a credible scenario.   (source)
  • She had on a mink stole composed of lustrous tails, and was extricating herself from her gloves.   (source)
    composed = made
  • Claude looked at her, his face carefully composed into a mask of surprise.   (source)
  • My grandparents were part of the second wave, composed of returning veterans and the rapidly rising number of young adults in 1940s and '50s Appalachia.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • Why is our regiment composed entirely of kids like us, no one over the age of eighteen?   (source)
  • Behind her the walls of the room were flooded with green and yellow and orange fireworks sizzling and bursting to some music composed almost completely of trap drums, tom-toms, and cymbals.   (source)
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  • Groves are typically composed of trees, rather than, say, Fudgsicles.   (source)
  • They ate modestly, meals composed of grains and vegetables and some dairy, and when they were lucky, juiced fruit or a little meat.   (source)
  • It aroused in Winston dim memories of something seen long ago on a wall or a hoarding — a vast bottle composed of electric lights which seemed to move up and down and pour its contents into a glass.   (source)
    composed = made
  • Not philosophers but fret-sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.   (source)
    compose = make up
  • They were composed of oddly familiar pieces of ivory.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document.   (source)
  • The founders of the greater part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be traced...   (source)
    compose = make up
  • You may remember that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of discovery composed the whole of our good Uncle Thomas' library.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • That novel was composed of scratches on a page, dear.   (source)
  • I am her outcome, the result of the life she once lived headlong; whereas she, if she can be said to exist at all, is composed only of what I remember.   (source)
  • [tinder] An inflammable substance generally composed of partially burned linen, used for kindling fire from a spark struck with a steel and flint.   (source)
    composed = made
  • A third layer of nativeness was composed of those who others thought directly descended, even in the tiniest fraction of their genes, from the human beings who had been brought from Africa to this continent centuries ago as slaves.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • The law office itself had a reception area that might as well have been that of a five-star hotel: a flower arrangement of eighteenth-century density and ostentation, thick mushroom-coloured wall-to-wall, an abstract painting composed of pricey smudges.   (source)
  • They're composed of crystals in a high state of organization, and they attempt to establish communications with those Earth beings they've assumed are like themselves: eyeglasses, windowpanes, Venetian paperweights, wine goblets, diamond rings.   (source)
  • It was a foul day, torrid and hazy; hotter than the hinges of Hades, as Walter would say now Above the lakeshore there was an invisible but almost palpable fog, composed of stale perfume and the oil from tanned bare shoulders, mixed with the steam from the cooking wieners and the burnt tang of spun sugar.   (source)
    composed = made
  • Looked at so closely one sees the fine sand is composed of millions of the tiniest pebbles, as clear as if they had been made in a laboratory.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • I examined the materials of the fire, and to my joy found it to be composed of wood.   (source)
  • It was not alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the pungent, acrid smell of blood, but it seemed as though corruption had become itself corrupt.   (source)
  • But the pillar was composed of both the day and the night guiding, for the fire was in the red eye, which at the thought got a new fascination for me, till, as I looked, the fire divided, and seemed to shine on me through the fog like two red eyes, such as Lucy told me of in her momentary mental wandering when, on the cliff, the dying sunlight struck the windows of St. Mary's Church.   (source)
  • They were her countrywomen: and the beef and ale of their native land, with a moral diet not a whit more refined, entered largely into their composition.   (source)
    composition = makeup (something composed of many parts)
  • I found that I could not compose a female without again devoting several months to profound study and laborious disquisition.   (source)
    compose = create by arranging parts
  • This body of soldiery—which still sustains a corporate existence, and marches down from past ages with an ancient and honourable fame—was composed of no mercenary materials.   (source)
    composed = made up
  • Were we among the tamer scenes of nature I might fear to encounter your unbelief, perhaps your ridicule; but many things will appear possible in these wild and mysterious regions which would provoke the laughter of those unacquainted with the ever-varied powers of nature; nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed.   (source)
  • ...all such thoughts were wasted moments in a life composed of a definitionally finite set of such moments.   (source)
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  • She is admired for maintaining her composure under even the worse of circumstances.
  • When she pulled up at her parents' house, she had to compose herself before she walked in.   (source)
    compose = calm
  • Rosa was still in shock, but she composed herself.   (source)
    composed = calmed or settled
  • I kept myself composed enough that no one saw the storm raging inside—a miracle in and of itself.   (source)
    composed = calm or settled
  • He lay back on the bed and tried to compose himself.   (source)
    compose = calm
  • Moniba spoke well—she was very composed and her speech was more emotional and poetic than mine, though mine might have had the better message.   (source)
  •   "When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off, because I do not want to see a world without him."
      I was kind of crying by then.
      "And then, having made my rhetorical point, I will put my robot eyes on, because I mean, with robot eyes you can probably see through girls' shirts and stuff. Augustus, my friend, Godspeed." ...  After he'd recovered his composure, he added, "I would cut the bit about seeing through girls' shirts."   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • Mama did not answer but maintained her composure.   (source)
  • His face twisted and strained to stay composed.   (source)
    composed = calm
  • Then she composes herself and beams at me.   (source)
    composes = calms or settles
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  • While another line of kids boarded, Dana composed himself as if he were a model citizen.   (source)
    composed = settled or calmed
  • Several of these images show McCandless's belongings inside the derelict vehicle; as soon as Franz realizes what he's seeing, his eyes mist over, he thrusts the photos back at me without examining the rest, and the old man walks away to compose himself as I mumble a lame apology.   (source)
    compose = calm
  • The judge regained her composure.   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • Lale stays sitting as he tries to compose himself.   (source)
    compose = calm
  • Aunt Alexandra composed herself for a two-hour nap and dared us to make any noise in the yard, the neighborhood was resting.   (source)
    composed = settled or calmed
  • For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men.   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • Regaining his usual composure, he took a seat next to the princess.   (source)
  • Once I figured this out and composed myself, I got a Ziploc-sized sample bag and waved it around a bit, then sealed it.   (source)
    composed = settled or calmed
  • He composed himself triumphantly, to hear the sounds of the hunt dying away.   (source)
  • Without them I wouldn't be able to jump back into the fray with my usual composure.   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • I felt tingly all over as I stared into the face of the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Without the girl knowing, I regained my composure as she began to talk.   (source)
    composure = calm (in control of emotions)
  • She said, more composedly: "I don't think this place would be very agreeable in a storm."   (source)
    composedly = in a calm manner
  • Before my mother's tremulous anxiety I recover my composure.   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep.   (source)
    composed = calm or settled
  • "Drink, then," replied he, still with the same cold composure.   (source)
    composure = calm state of mind
  • Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.   (source)
    compose = calm
  • Maintaining her composure, she worked quickly and moved all of the received messages to a multiply-encrypted, invisible subdirectory.†   (source)
  • "No worries," said Chuck immediately, regaining his composure, but still massaging the hand the door had hit.†   (source)
  • "Ah, but there you have him," she said They were both silent as she regained her composure.†   (source)
  • Its people with their Hanseatic history and composure.†   (source)
  • As it turned out—perhaps because I had braced myself for the worst—I was able to keep my composure.†   (source)
  • Thomas, still a bit queasy from the Changing, forced himself to take a second and gain his composure.†   (source)
  • Sophie had been remarkably poised all evening, but now, for the first time, Langdon saw the aura of composure beginning to crack.†   (source)
  • I sat quietly while he forced himself back into composure.†   (source)
  • My face crumpled, my composure went and I held him tightly and I stopped caring that he could feel the shudder of my sobbing body because grief swamped me.†   (source)
  • When he regained his composure, he grinned.†   (source)
  • "It's a long story," Sticky said, regaining his composure.†   (source)
  • I decided I'm going to live—or at least try to live—the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure.†   (source)
  • These two have a strange way of making me lose my composure.†   (source)
  • The donkeys swayed again, the cows—their horns falling about their heads—moved a little, and the kings and shepherds regained their usual lack of composure.†   (source)
  • So I admire Pattie's composure.†   (source)
  • I could tell he was struggling to maintain his composure.†   (source)
  • Kit marveled at the ease and gentleness with which Mercy controlled her charges, her warm sweet voice never raised, her lovely composure never ruffled.†   (source)
  • That would shatter her pretense of calm and composure.†   (source)
  • Even Septa Mordane noted her composure and nodded in approval.†   (source)
  • Dr. Erland reassembled his composure.†   (source)
  • At that moment, Rufus's composure broke.†   (source)
  • "Well," Rachel said, trying to regain her composure.†   (source)
  • She was a masterpiece of composure; nothing ever ruffled her or made her upset, and though she was not beautiful her calmness had the magnetic pull of beauty —a stillness so powerful that the molecules realigned themselves around her when she came into a room.†   (source)
  • We haven't even been married for two years:' She looked at me and took a few deep breaths, trying to regain her composure.†   (source)
  • She sucked in a breath and quickly regained her composure.†   (source)
  • I struggled to regain my composure.†   (source)
  • Several days later, once Father had regained his composure and both his eyes, he assured me that Mama Tataba hadn't meant to ruin our demonstration garden.†   (source)
  • Beyond the telekinesis practice, most of our session was spent drilling technique in fighting—hand-to-hand combat, wrestling, mixed martial arts—followed by elements of composure—grace under pressure, mind control, how to spot fear in the eyes of an opponent and then know how best to expose it.†   (source)
  • I regained my composure.†   (source)
  • I recovered my composure and tried to make my smile warm.†   (source)
  • "It seemed to me," he wrote, in a letter to John in Brookline, "that at the least it must have been extremely disquieting, gaudy & childish, if not savage and an injury to the Exposition, through its disturbance of dignity, and injury to breadth, unity & composure."†   (source)
  • Stenton seemed impressed with her composure.†   (source)
  • By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure.†   (source)
  • "They used me to the point where I had no body parts left to give," Kenny said, struggling to maintain his composure.†   (source)
  • Brittain has regained some composure.†   (source)
  • A white-haired man sitting erect in the old wicker chair, a figure of eerie stillness and composure.†   (source)
  • Kris struggled to regain her composure.†   (source)
  • Latha stared at him with a composure and a lack of curiosity unusual in a thirteen-year-old.†   (source)
  • It's a girl," Jace said, recovering his composure.†   (source)
  • But almost immediately, she resumed her composure and asked in a steady voice: "Will you come up and see him?"†   (source)
  • It would be helpful to me, if she were indeed mad, or at least a little madder than she appears to be; but thus far she has manifested a composure that a duchess might envy.†   (source)
  • Instead, he focused on what she had just said and regained his composure.†   (source)
  • Only then did his composure break.†   (source)
  • After reading it he regained his composure.†   (source)
  • Yueh closed his eyes, fought to regain composure.†   (source)
  • He begins to recover his composure.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Shigemura taught Hatsue how to sing with composure and how to sit, walk, and stand gracefully.†   (source)
  • Sophie tried hard to maintain her composure when it turned out to be—yes, it was!†   (source)
  • "Let's not be sad" "I'm not sad, Sister," I said when I had regained some composure.†   (source)
  • He was trying hard, it seemed to me, to hold on to his professional composure.†   (source)
  • Not even her worst escapes from foster homes or her regular truancy from school had ever ruffled his composure.†   (source)
  • I tried to inject a measure of self-composure into my voice.†   (source)
  • Eragon was so surprised and outraged, he failed to regain his composure well enough to protest before Glaedr resumed speaking.†   (source)
  • After the departure of the detectives, the composure that had impressed Nye faltered; a familiar despair impended.†   (source)
  • For three hours now, Alex had regained her composure, thanks to the anesthesiologist who'd given her an epidural.†   (source)
  • I did not want to lose my composure, but I felt my body begin to shake.†   (source)
  • My dad's eyebrows come together, as if he's struggling to keep his composure.†   (source)
  • " I'm glad nothing requires my intervention, because I'm trying hard to maintain my composure.†   (source)
  • Luma had no doubt who would win the scrimmage, but she wanted to see how the 15s would react to the challenge of a superior team—to see if they would crumble and lose their composure or if they would keep fighting.†   (source)
  • Juliet's yelling, and when I sit up her face has finally lost its composure and is twisted with anger.†   (source)
  • It was like Cinderella in reverse: if I was a princess for my daylight hours, at night I let myself and my composure go, just until the stroke of midnight, when I turned back to princess again, just in time.†   (source)
  • She sought vainly for the poise and composure which were her natural birthright in most of the situations of life.†   (source)
  • He had a tear in his eye, and I must admit I was fighting to control my composure as well.†   (source)
  • Kate shriveled inside but maintained an outward composure.†   (source)
  • Throughout his walk, Frear had maintained his composure, walking calmly and studying faces carefully.†   (source)
  • "My fault," he cried, shaking his head in rage, struggling visibly to regain his composure.†   (source)
  • I have the blessing of carrying a purse sewn by a woman waiting for fistula surgery at the hospital and watching how these new skills have changed her whole composure and confidence, of celebrating with my Congolese friend who was accepted for a job right after he graduated from university, of seeing children in school who previously never had the chance, of rejoicing with a family over their improved harvest, of dancing with my coworkers over a grant awarded for a program.†   (source)
  • Pippa's trying hard to maintain her composure.†   (source)
  • Willing his composure, he took a deep breath and continued.†   (source)
  • After she regains her composure, she lowers her voice in an attempt to avoid attracting the attention of the nine-year-olds who are somewhere within our vicinity.†   (source)
  • I eventually regained my composure and moved on.†   (source)
  • With a last shred of composure, I plucked my underwear from where it had lodged between my cheeks.†   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • With every camera gleefully trained on him, I have just enough time to release the small, choked sound in my throat and compose myself.†   (source)
  • But this document was composed in a cool, experienced, meticulous style.†   (source)
  • After a moment of bewilderment, the Count attempted to compose himself.†   (source)
  • He stopped, took a breath to compose himself.†   (source)
  • Composed of Halliday scholars, videogame experts, pop-culture historians, and cryptologists.†   (source)
  • It was done in a way that was leisurely, yet alert and composed.†   (source)
  • Every single space on my talking board got filled with names and pictures of people in my life, questions I might need to ask, and a big variety of nouns and verbs and adjectives, so I could actually compose something that looked like a sentence!†   (source)
  • Andrew Brown's print shop smelled of ink and grease and the sweat of muscular apprentices carrying trays of lead type from the composing table to the printing press.†   (source)
  • Putting the SmartCar in reverse, she performed a composed three-point turn and reversed her direction.†   (source)
  • It changed the chemical composition of the oil.†   (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • Before I could compose myself, he spoke again.†   (source)
  • She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy.†   (source)
  • The city is ruled by a council of fifty people, composed entirely of representatives from Abnegation, because our faction is regarded as incorruptible, due to our commitment to selflessness.†   (source)
  • He took a deep breath, as if he were trying to compose himself.†   (source)
  • In his mind he began composing a letter.†   (source)
  • My mother struggled not to let it show, but underneath her composed expression was a growing smile.†   (source)
  • It was a jury composed of six men and six women.†   (source)
  • I composed myself on the porch, and stepped inside.†   (source)
  • The giant circular targets were composed of five colored rings—yellow marking the center, with only a tiny black dot to mark the bull's-eye.†   (source)
  • On the first page of his book, Colonel Summers tells a story about President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in 1945, when the Allied powers were trying to decide the composition of the postwar world.†   (source)
  • And there sat Erik—composed, casual, wearing his football-hero smile.†   (source)
  • The cadets inscribe the words into their composition books.†   (source)
  • I start to think about soil composition.†   (source)
  • She took a deep breath and composed herself.†   (source)
  • The society was composed of a group of white-haired American missionary ladies from the First Chinese Baptist Church.†   (source)
  • I'll see you later," she mumbled, and before Aria could compose herself, Emily was biking furiously away.†   (source)
  • Try to compose myself.†   (source)
  • And run I do, leaving almost everything I possess in the world behind me my brown suitcase, the three dresses I made at the Byrnes', the fingerless gloves and change of underwear and the navy sweater, my schoolbooks and pencil, the composition book Miss Larsen gave me to write in.†   (source)
  • I must have been listening to his hints on camera angles and composition when I took the pictures he held now.†   (source)
  • "The composition of the human species is infinitely more diverse than most humans suspect," she began.†   (source)
  • In fact, I have composed a list.†   (source)
  • For the next twelve years lived abroad, in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, composing the first volume of Dead Souls, the novel considered to be his finest work.†   (source)
  • A typical Asian rice farm might be composed of two or three paddies.†   (source)
  • Robb composed himself with an effort.†   (source)
  • And then I compose the most difficult letter I've ever written.†   (source)
  • She must have been sweltering, but she looked fully composed.†   (source)
  • I took a couple of deep breaths to compose myself.†   (source)
  • More composed, I went back to the beginning, to the first dizziness, and remembered it all for him—relived it all in detail.†   (source)
  • He was more composed now and returned to small talk, easy conversation.†   (source)
  • Dad's mouth dropped open before he composed himself.†   (source)
  • Their early attempts at composition had been part of a bludgeoning insistence that they be accepted as a properly evolved and cultured race, but now the only thing that kept them going was sheer bloody-mindedness.†   (source)
  • They began composing debates for their characters.†   (source)
  • He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud.†   (source)
  • The composition doesn't hold together.†   (source)
  • So, McCourt, you are to go home and write that composition and bring it in tomorrow.†   (source)
  • Lopsang first made a splash in 1993, at the age of twenty, when he was hired to carry loads for a joint Indian-Nepalese Everest team led by an Indian woman, Bachendri Pal, and largely composed of female climbers.†   (source)
  • Alex turns around, and to my surprise his face isn't composed at all.†   (source)
  • PROFESSOR McGONAGALL (composes herself for a moment): Your intentions to save Cedric were honorable, if misguided.†   (source)
  • Holly composed herself.†   (source)
  • Furthermore, I happen to know you cheated on your Final Composition.†   (source)
  • The walls were composed of dirty white cinder blocks.†   (source)
  • I composed the story in a way that would make my day sound okay.†   (source)
  • Also recorded are the songs and stories composed by our artisans.†   (source)
  • That's a very, very rough approximation both of the area—contained between Baghdad, Ramadi, and Baqubah—and the ethnic composition.†   (source)
  • He played violin and read music and composed it, mostly classical and religious music.†   (source)
  • Ripe fruits, acrid sweat, urine, flowers, dark spices, and other things I've never even seen—I can't say what goes into the composition, or why it rises up to confront me as I round some corner hastily, unsuspecting.†   (source)
  • She looked pale but composed.†   (source)
  • The older kids scattered to quiet spots around the Center to compose poems.†   (source)
  • I have fifteen minutes before sophomore composition begins.†   (source)
  • You can't c-c-c-compose this poetry unless your m-m-muse is shedding blood, can you?†   (source)
  • And then his fingers flowed swiftly across the ivory, and the room was filled with a composition so complex, so luxuriant, it was impossible to believe only one set of hands played.†   (source)
  • Michael began to compose himself.†   (source)
  • Across the country, ministers stayed up late Saturday night and by candle or lamp wrote out the final words of sermons they began composing as soon as they heard the terrible news of the president's death.†   (source)
  • Rina had recovered, at least temporarily, and was completely composed as she was escorted to the stage and our seats there, in a quick rearrangement, by a defensive back.†   (source)
  • He composed a pledge that the Bureau of Education mailed to virtually every school.†   (source)
  • I heard one of them in a news broadcast the morning I started composing this chapter.†   (source)
  • He exhaled loudly, composing himself.†   (source)
  • She told of the math test for which he had received a B+; the English composition that Mr. Parker had asked him to read aloud to the class, bringing him both embarrassment and triumph; she told her what he ate, what he wore, the new shoes he had bought—all the trivialities of his life, with no mention of the things that mattered: Amy or the poetry he wrote late at night in his room, his longings, his hopes ….†   (source)
  • When Mama wasn't supplying the neighborhood with caps and baby dresses from her flying needles, she was composing cheery messages for shut-ins all over Haarlem.†   (source)
  • I'm not lying, the So-Called Gym Teacher knew something about Composition on Several Planes at once.†   (source)
  • Her face had a dreamy look, quiet and composed.†   (source)
  • The Kabbalists referred to this alphabet as 'eye writing,' because the letters were composed of lines and small circles, which resembled eyes.†   (source)
  • Ranchers trying to stabilize their incomes fell victim to their own fallacy of composition.†   (source)
  • Some called it the country's first "multi-ethnic" revolt; the common link was the class composition of the combatants.†   (source)
  • You'd think he'd composed it just for you, my dear.†   (source)
  • The scene of injured people, medics, smoking steel, all washed in a strong and eerie light, to ok on the eloquence of a formal composition.†   (source)
  • He tried to sound composed, ironic, like a man amused at some childish prank, but his face told a different story.†   (source)
  • I want to read this composition aloud.†   (source)
  • She tried to compose herself before she went to take the new order.†   (source)
  • It was dark inside the chamber, whose walls were composed entirely of knotted and twisted roots.†   (source)
  • Indeed, in the moment or so that it took for me to perceive this and compose a suitable response, I may even have given the outward impression of struggling with the question, for I saw all the gentlemen in the room exchange mirthful smiles.†   (source)
  • If I were a musician, I would have composed music.†   (source)
  • He also composed music for children, incidental music for radio plays, and more film scores.†   (source)
  • A fractal …. something considered simple and orderly that is actually composed of repeated patterns no matter how magnified.†   (source)
  • I sit down on the bed and flip open my laptop, log in to my email account and start to compose a note to my mother.†   (source)
  • When they do, he is calm and composed and back to the Ky I know.†   (source)
  • My stomach rolled over and I took a short breath to compose myself.†   (source)
  • The Third was once described as a composition in which dark clouds dissolve into sunshine.†   (source)
  • More astonished than flattered, he composed an identifying phrase: Tell her that I swear by the crowned goddess.†   (source)
  • It will track your breathing and blood composition, and gather all sorts of useful information.†   (source)
  • She'll compose herself in bindu suspension to reduce her oxygen needs.†   (source)
  • He had selected two examples of student composition.†   (source)
  • In this case the official cause of death, he wrote, was anoxia—a deprivation of oxygen to the brain—as well as an acute disturbance to the composition of the blood.†   (source)
  • Finally they had composed the invitation.†   (source)
  • If she had told me the night before I would have lain awake all night, of course, full of dread and foreboding, but by morning I would have been composed and ready.†   (source)
  • Only when I'd composed myself afterward did Mameha speak.†   (source)
  • He finished up the morning's work, and because he couldn't get his mind off it, composed a quick e-mail to Gage.†   (source)
  • And as they spoke, I was composing in my head how that last afternoon went.†   (source)
  • It was the music composed by J. Rosamond Johnson.†   (source)
  • "Fine," Abby finally said, composing herself.†   (source)
  • He had composed a poem, called "The Mango Lady," dedicated "To Ophelia."†   (source)
  • Our council's composed of and led by our own people.†   (source)
  • A hastily composed lunchtime update from the TT wire service had the headline A TOWN IN SHOCK, and it summed up the problems of the Vanger Corporation.†   (source)
  • They composed it in four hours, and many many times she said, "I could never get through this without you" and the Prince was always most modest, asking little helpful personal questions about Westley as often as was possible without drawing attention to it, and in this way, well before dawn, she told him, smiling as she remembered, of Westley's early fears of Spinning Ticks.†   (source)
  • Its composition depended on the kind of vegetable provided that winter.†   (source)
  • When she spoke again, her voice was more composed but still held a wavering note.†   (source)
  • Among them was a badly typed composition entitled "A History of My Boy's Life.†   (source)
  • What would an anthropologist say about the student body of Sterling High, based on the Wonder-bread sandwiches scarred by only one bite; the tub of Cherry Bomb lip gloss with a fingerprint still skimming the surface; the salt-and-pepper composition notebooks filled with study sheets on Aztec civilization and margin notes about the current one: I luv Zach S!†   (source)
  • People come and go, changing the composition but not the shape of the crowd.†   (source)
  • This was a difficult letter to compose, especially with Moody at my shoulder reading every word.†   (source)
  • "Luis and Carlos, go to your bedroom," she orders, stepping into the room and composing herself.†   (source)
  • The High Organ was the source of some controversy because of its ethnic composition: all four permanent members were from Xhosa backgrounds.†   (source)
  • It takes me a moment to compose myself.†   (source)
  • An infinitely long train, composed of cattle wagons, with no roofs.†   (source)
  • In fact, he's almost composed.†   (source)
  • McMurphy composed more notes for the nurse to find in the latrine with her mirror.†   (source)
  • He laughed anxiously, then composed himself.†   (source)
  • He edged out an inch farther, changing the composition.†   (source)
  • In fact he himself seemed composed and even detached, which was more than could be said for any other rabbit in the audience: but Pipkin was hardly to realize this.†   (source)
  • Clancy was lean but not slight, well-kept but not groomed, composed but not comfortable.†   (source)
  • Then she managed to say in a fairly composed tone.†   (source)
  • She composed her hands again and looked at him.†   (source)
  • Each site operates a bit differently, but the gist is this: You compose a personal ad about yourself that typically includes a photo, vital statistics, your income range, level of education, likes and dislikes, and so on.†   (source)
  • He discovered a number of workers from the editorial and composing rooms still in the building.†   (source)
  • I spent an evening in my bunk composing what I would write on the card.†   (source)
  • Their force composition for one thing.†   (source)
  • It was on its way to being a good composition.†   (source)
  • But behind the little sand streams came a river, composed not of water but of sand.†   (source)
  • After she had composed herself, she came out and kneeled on the floor and begged forgiveness.†   (source)
  • Wonderful composition, with the balance of the mirror and the woman, who is rendered in the style of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, I believe.†   (source)
  • But instead I left after a few minutes, and composed myself before heading to the next class.†   (source)
  • Puller waited until she'd composed herself and turned back to him.†   (source)
  • Then she composed herself and insisted on cleaning the house.†   (source)
  • Jahan took a breath and composed herself.†   (source)
  • The twenty-eight teams were composed of high schoolers predominantly from the Northeast.†   (source)
  • "It wouldn't have been any disgrace at all," he told The New Yorker in its April 7 issue, "to figure out a composition like that.†   (source)
  • Madam — my dear young lady — for heaven's sake — compose yourself.†   (source)
  • The only subjects that came easily were those taught by Writing Mistress: composition and ciphering.†   (source)
  • It was a black-and-white composition book.†   (source)
  • Pause; she composes herself.†   (source)
  • She doesn't even drill me about format and composition.†   (source)
  • Some of these were composed or begun by Meriadoc himself, though in the Shire he was chiefly remembered for his Herblore of the Shire, and for his Reckoning of Years m which he discussed the relation of the calendars of the Shire and Bree to those of Rivendell, Gondor, and Rohan.†   (source)
  • A Roman spear of a make and composition that hasn't been forged in over a thousand years."†   (source)
  • He also won first prize that winter for an original piano composition.†   (source)
  • And Lestat sat composed beside her, like a mourner.†   (source)
  • He soon mastered his right hand and expanded his use of the two fingers that remained, continuing to compose songs about hens and hunted foxes.†   (source)
  • Will you please hand me that small composition gasket that rolled over there?†   (source)
  • When we weren't working on the flower tower, we composed a lament we would sing to calm my cousin.†   (source)
  • I could tell he was taking great efforts to compose himself.†   (source)
  • He tries to remain composed, again rustling pages on the lectern.†   (source)
  • "Well, I noticed that composition notebook you're always scribbling in is looking pretty ratty.†   (source)
  • The girls had set up all the stuff in the auditorium; and they had, with Miss Violet's help, composed the story about the three wise men.†   (source)
  • They are composed like music.†   (source)
  • I'm already composing a letter in my head.†   (source)
  • She could rattle off the composition of mistura carminativa (one gm of soda bicarb, two ml each of spirit of ammonia and tincture cardamom, point six ml of tincture of ginger, one ml of spirit of chloroform, topped off with peppermint water to thirty ml) for dyspepsia.†   (source)
  • I'll show you the door in short order if you flunked English, you little ace composition writer.†   (source)
  • I read aloud a thought unit that consisted of a citation from the Mishnah—the Mishnah is the written text of rabbinic oral law; in form and content it is for the most part terse and clipped, a vast collection of laws upon which are based almost all the rabbinic discussions which, together with the Mishnah, compose the Talmud.†   (source)
  • He was a judge, as open, tolerant, and fair-minded as he could possibly be, given his upbringing and genetic composition.†   (source)
  • I feel the same way about composing.†   (source)
  • She approved, with a quick twitch of her fingers, the message I had composed for the district magistrate, and then opened the most recent message from her young sister.†   (source)
  • I looked at her thinking of what I'd tried to do and of where it had gotten me, seeing her heavy, composed figure before me.†   (source)
  • All proteins were composed of the same freight cars, the same units.†   (source)
  • A deportment so firm, so dignified, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any other person.†   (source)
  • Indeed, Mira had been up most of the night, reading reports, using her training and her psych diagnostics to compose a profile.†   (source)
  • Upstairs, I took a minute to compose myself before I knocked on the door.†   (source)
  • She broke off for a moment, composing herself.†   (source)
  • He could have composed them himself.†   (source)
  • "Alexander," she went on in a more composed voice.†   (source)
  • In an area composed of a few modular buildings and a covered motor pool, they had carved out a small patio with a brick pizza oven and a large gas grill.†   (source)
  • The floor was composed of pieces of brick and stone and artificial stone cleverly fitted together.†   (source)
  • She sat back on her bench and composed herself.†   (source)
  • Max glowered at the two of them, sitting so calm and composed.†   (source)
  • The front of the woman was composed of two hinged doors.†   (source)
  • Five thousand miles away, in Moscow, a furious Nikita Khrushchev composes his response to JFK's televised message.†   (source)
  • Cherryl's face was composed and unsmiling.†   (source)
  • It is an electronic graphic, digitally composed, a fusion of Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian features.†   (source)
  • It's a white, translucent mineral composed of potassium nitrate.†   (source)
  • She was red-eyed but composed, Henry wrote.†   (source)
  • The music itself sounded as though a convicted lecher had composed it.†   (source)
  • "The Colonization Society is composed of racists, pure and simple," Tappan said.†   (source)
  • My American one is still composed of delicate halves.†   (source)
  • Alessandro began to compose a letter of protest.†   (source)
  • The nearest village, Bucktown, was little more than a settlement composed of post office, church, crossroads store, and eight or ten dwelling houses.†   (source)
  • And he plays her the song he has composed upstairs in his bedroom over the past week.†   (source)
  • How could you hear a composition from Mozart's childhood and not feel sure that he had been drawing on several lifetimes' worth of experience?†   (source)
  • Juggle, jest, or recite the poems composed by your betters.†   (source)
  • Finch composes himself.†   (source)
  • Each province is composed of equal, independent cities.†   (source)
  • But the face was calm, composed, watchful.†   (source)
  • I sat there for a couple minutes, caught my breath, and tried to compose myself.†   (source)
  • Misty screamed and began wiping her composition notebooks on the car seat.†   (source)
  • I appreciated my sister giving me at least a short while to compose myself before plunging back into the affairs of the island.†   (source)
  • We batted it around much of that night, in room L of Raffles—argued it between decisions on a hundred things that came up and people wanted to know what to do, while "Adam" through other voices handled other decisions that did not require talk, composed phony news to send Earthside, kept Complex isolated, many things.†   (source)
  • Morris Panov, his face pale but composed, stood there with a suitcase in his hand.†   (source)
  • Perhaps because I was so quiet and composed she added maliciously, 'She marry with someone else.†   (source)
  • A cleric preached, a fighter read a poem of his own composition.†   (source)
  • We don't know quite what it's composed of."†   (source)
  • I knew from having studied the files at Ottawa that there were eighteen hundred trappers in those portions of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and southern Keewatin which composed the winter range of the Keewatin caribou herd.†   (source)
  • Ralph would compose himself, at the ready.†   (source)
  • "You have to compose yourself," said Brave Orchid to her sister.†   (source)
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