12 uses
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1 —6 uses as in:
keep your composure
Definition
to calm someone or settle something
- You speak with astonishing composure!Chapter 14 (66% in)
- Everything indeed relative to this important journey was done, on the part of the Morlands, with a degree of moderation and composure, which seemed rather consistent with the common feelings of common life, than with the refined susceptibilities, the tender emotions which the first separation of a heroine from her family ought always to excite.Chapter 2 (20% in)
- Her conviction of being right, however, was not enough to restore her composure; till she had spoken to Miss Tilney she could not be at ease; and quickening her pace when she got clear of the Crescent, she almost ran over the remaining ground till she gained the top of Milsom Street.Chapter 13 (55% in)
- Catherine was saved the embarrassment of attempting an answer by the entrance of the general, whose smiling compliments announced a happy state of mind, but whose gentle hint of sympathetic early rising did not advance her composure.Chapter 22 (31% in)
- Eleanor's countenance was dejected, yet sedate; and its composure spoke her inured to all the gloomy objects to which they were advancing.Chapter 24 (21% in)
- He certainly is greatly, very greatly discomposed; I have seldom seen him more so.Chapter 28 (55% in)
There are no more uses of "compose" flagged with this meaning in Northanger Abbey.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —6 uses
exact meaning not specified
- Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried.Chapter 5 (74% in)
- So far her improvement was sufficient—and in many other points she came on exceedingly well; for though she could not write sonnets, she brought herself to read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing a whole party into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, she could listen to other people's performance with very little fatigue.Chapter 1 (79% in)
- "Nay, my beloved, sweetest friend," continued the other, "compose yourself.Chapter 15 (14% in)
- To compose a letter which might at once do justice to her sentiments and her situation, convey gratitude without servile regret, be guarded without coldness, and honest without resentment—a letter which Eleanor might not be pained by the perusal of—and, above all, which she might not blush herself, if Henry should chance to see, was an undertaking to frighten away all her powers of performance; and, after long thought and much perplexity, to be very brief was all that she could...Chapter 29 (61% in)
- Henry, in an agitation of mind which many solitary hours were required to compose, had returned almost instantly to Woodston, and, on the afternoon of the following day, had begun his journey to Fullerton.Chapter 30 (99% in)
- Concerning the one in question, therefore, I have only to add—aware that the rules of composition forbid the introduction of a character not connected with my fable—that this was the very gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which my heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures.Chapter 31 (68% in)
There are no more uses of "compose" in Northanger Abbey.
Typical Usage
(best examples)