• (GA) IPA: /kəmˈpoʊʒɚ/
• (RP) IPA: /kəmˈpəʊʒə/

composure

1. Calmness of mind or matter, self-possession.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, London, Book 6, lines 559-560,

     That all may see who hate us, how we seek

     Peace and composure […]

   • 1724, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, London: John Clark & Richard Hett, 3rd edition, 1729, Chapter 3, Section 3, p. 203,

     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 Composure […]

   • 1845 October – 1846 June​, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: A Novel, volume XII, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, […], published December 1847, OCLC 156123328 ↗:

     “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner.

   • 1894, Arthur Machen (translator), Histoire de ma vie by Giacomo Casanova, London: Elek Books, Volume 4, Chapter 16, p. 407,

     He began to lose his composure, and made mistakes, his cards got mixed up, and his scoring was wild.

2. (obsolete) The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition.
   • 1818, John Evelyn, Memoirs, edited by William Bray (antiquary), London: Henry Colburn, 2nd edition, Volume I, entry for 10 March, 1685, p. 592,

     […] Sign^r Pietro […] had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.

3. (obsolete) Orderly adjustment; disposition.
   • 1695, John Woodward (naturalist), An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, London: Richard Wilkin, Part 5, p. 230,

     […] from the various Composures and Combinations of these Corpusoles together, happen all the Varieties of the Bodies formed out of them […]

4. (obsolete) Frame; make; temperament.
   • circa 1606 William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 4,

     […] his composure must be rare indeed

     Whom these things can not blemish […]

5. (obsolete) A combination; a union; a bond.
   • circa 1601 William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene 3,

     […] their fraction is more our wish than their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool could disunite.

• (calmness) equanimity
• (calmness) See also Thesaurus:calm

• French: calme, quiétude
• German: Gelassenheit, Fassung, Haltung, innere Ruhe, Selbstbeherrschung
• Italian: contegno, compostezza, ritegno, autocontrollo, disponibilità
• Portuguese: compostura, comedimento
• Russian: самооблада́ние
• Spanish: compostura, entereza