2 meanings, 20 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
1 —3 uses as in:
compose a poem
Definition
to write or create something with care — especially music or a literary work, but could be other things as diverse as a plan or a letter
- When I listen to a symphony I love, I don't get from it what the composer got.4.4 — Part 4 Chapter 4 (39% in)
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- He built like a composer improvising under the spur of a mystic guidance.1.10 — Part 1 Chapter 10 (7% in)
- Ralston Holcombe on the stand, with flowing tie and gold-headed cane, had the appearance of a Grand Duke or a beer-garden composer.2.12 — Part 2 Chapter 12 (80% in)
There are no more uses of "compose" flagged with this meaning in The Fountainhead.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
2 —1 use as in:
keep your composure
Definition
to calm someone or settle something
- Then Toohey's face seemed to harden, drawing together again in composure, and Keating knew that Toohey had found relief somewhere, in his bones or in his gaping, bewildered face, that some hidden immensity of ignorance within him had given Toohey reassurance.2.3 — Part 2 Chapter 3 (83% in)
There are no more uses of "compose" flagged with this meaning in The Fountainhead.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —16 uses
exact meaning not specified
- The entire plan was a composition in triangles.4.9 — Part 4 Chapter 9 (34% in)
- His face bore not a wrinkle nor a single straight line; it was an artful composition in globes, circles, arcs and ellipses, with bright little eyes twinkling wittily.1.2 — Part 1 Chapter 2 (10% in)
- "Yes," he said as she stared obediently at a landscape featuring an auto dump and tried to compose her face into the look of admiration expected of her; "magnificent work.1.5 — Part 1 Chapter 5 (32% in)
- Last week I read about a new kind of composition tile...and I've thought of a way to use it where nothing...else would do...take, for instance, a small house...about five thousand dollars..."1.14 — Part 1 Chapter 14 (67% in)
- When they came to compositions, Johnny would stun the class by some brilliant display of rebellion.2.9 — Part 2 Chapter 9 (19% in)
- It contradicts the elementary principles of composition.2.12 — Part 2 Chapter 12 (76% in)
- She sat still, composed, but somehow she looked like something run over by a tank.2.13 — Part 2 Chapter 13 (74% in)
- She stood in the middle of the floor, as she had stood on her first night in this room, solemnly composed to the performance of a rite.2.14 — Part 2 Chapter 14 (69% in)
- It's startling to see the same elements used in two compositions with opposite themes.3.3 — Part 3 Chapter 3 (51% in)
- The briefest announcement you can compose.3.5 — Part 3 Chapter 5 (57% in)
- Bare trees rose on the hilltop and descended to the shore of a lake, their branches geometrical compositions cut through the air.4.3 — Part 4 Chapter 3 (1% in)
- She stood straight, her head level; the planes of her face had a military cleanliness of precision and a feminine fragility; her hands hung still, composed by her sides, parallel with the long straight lines of her black dress.4.4 — Part 4 Chapter 4 (25% in)
- From my overcoat—to the oldest linotype in the composing room—to the copies of the Banner on newsstands—to this penthouse—to my wife.4.4 — Part 4 Chapter 4 (33% in)
- The Banner editorials were written by Gail Wynand as he stood at a table in the composing room, written as always on a huge piece of print stock, with a blue pencil, in letters an inch high.4.13 — Part 4 Chapter 13 (58% in)
- His face was composed; it expressed no gloating; the face of an artist who knew that overdoing was defeat and achieved the supreme of offensiveness by remaining normal.4.15 — Part 4 Chapter 15 (21% in)
- He would pick up a lead slug off the composing room floor, and finger it absently on the palm of his hand, like a piece of jade, and lay it carefully on a table, as if he did not want it to be wasted.4.15 — Part 4 Chapter 15 (60% in)
There are no more uses of "compose" in The Fountainhead.
Typical Usage
(best examples)