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calm (käm)adj. calm·er, calm·est 1. Nearly or completely motionless; undisturbed: the calm surface of the lake. 2. Not excited or agitated; composed: The President was calm throughout the global crisis. n.1. An absence or cessation of motion; stillness. 2. Serenity; tranquillity; peace. 3. A condition of no wind or a wind with a speed of less than 1 knot (1.15 miles per hour; 1.9 kilometers per hour), according to the Beaufort scale. tr. & intr.v. calmed, calm·ing, calms To make or become calm or quiet: A warm bath will calm you. After the storm, the air calmed.
[Middle English calme, from Old French, from Old Italian calmo, from Late Latin cauma, heat of the day, resting place in the heat of the day, from Greek kauma, burning heat, from kaiein, to burn. N., from Middle English calme, from Italian calma, from Vulgar Latin *calma, from Late Latin.]
calm ly adv. calm ness n. Synonyms: calm, tranquil, placid, serene, peaceful These adjectives denote absence of excitement or disturbance: calm acceptance of the inevitable; hoped for a more tranquil life in the country; a soothing, placid tempermant; spent a serene, restful weekend at the lake; a peaceful hike through the scenic hills. |
Calmness See Also: PEACEFULNESS - Calm as a bathtub —George Garrett
- Calm as a Buddhist —Elizabeth Taylor
- Calm as a convent —Anon
- Calm as a cud-chewing cow —Harold Adams
- Calm as a frozen lake when ruthless winds blow fiercely —William Wordsworth
- Calm as a gliding moon —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Calm as a marble head —Eudora Welty
- (I’m) calm as a Mediterranean sky —Frank Swinnerton
- Calm as a mirror —Alexandre Dumas, pere
- (The sky was) calm as an aquarium —Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Calm as an iceberg —Gelett Burgess
- Calm as a slumbering babe —Percy Bysshe Shelley
As part of our daily language this has evolved into “Calm as a sleeping baby.” - (Said it as) calm as a virgin discussing flower arrangement —George MacDonald Fraser
- Calm as beauty —Robert Browning
- Calm as dewdrops —William Wordsworth
- Calm as fate —John Greenleaf Whittier
- Calm as glass —Charlotte Bronte
- Calm as ice —Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Calm as if she were sitting for her portrait —Henry James
- Calm as in the days when all was right —Friedrich von Schiller
- Calm as night —Victor Hugo
- (Voice) calm as the deepest cold —Sharon Sheehe Stark
- Calm as the sky after a day of storm —Voltaire
- Calm as virtue —William Shakespeare
- Calm as water in a glass —standing water in clean cut glass —Reynolds Price
- Calm descended (on the pool hall) as nerve shattering as if the (long barnlike) room were the ship from which Jonah had been cast into the sea —Flannery O’Connor
- Calmed down, like a Corinthian column —John Ashbery
- A calm … like the deep sleep which follows an orgy —Mark Twain
- Cold as cucumbers —Beaumont and Fletcher
In its original meaning this referred to sexual coldness. As currently used it means being calm, collected, or “Cool as a cucumber.” Poet Stevie Smith used the simile as a title for a poem which begins with this and two other cliches to describe the subject of the poem, a girl named Mary: “Cool as a cucumber calm as a mill pond sound as a bell was Mary.” (Ed: The quote from the Smith poem has no commas!) - Cool and collected as a dean sitting in his deanery —Ogden Nash
- Cool and ordinary as a gallon of buttermilk —Borden Deal
- Cool as a Buddha —Jan Epton Seale
The simile, from a short story about a new mother entitled Reluctant Madonna, reads as follows in full context: “Christie intends to be cool as a Buddha about this baby. Unflappable.” - Cool as a cop with a clipboard —Gary Gildner
- Cool as a cube of cucumber on ice —Carl Sandburg
This extension of the familiar “Cool as a cucumber” is particularly apt in Sandburg’s epic, The People, Yes, which beautifully and cleverly incorporates many familiar similes. - Cool as a frozen daiquiri —Linda Barnes
- Cool as an Easter lily —Erich Maria Remarque
- Cool as a quarterback —Dan Wakefield
- (He was) cool as a refrigerator —R.A.J. Walling
- Cool as a veteran horse race jockey —Carl Sandburg
- Cool as lettuce —Jay Parini
- (He’s as) cool as the other side of your pillow —Merlin Olsen, NBC-TV broadcaster, about Ken O’Brien, quarterback for the Jets, January, 1987
- Expression … as calm and collected as that of a doctor by a patient’s bedside —Stefan Zweig
- Felt a certain calm fall over me like a cloak —R. Wright Campbell
- Have kept composure, like captives who would not talk under torture —Richard Wilbur
- His calmness was like the sureness of money in the bank —Anzia Yezierska
- Looked as cool as a yellow diamond —Robert Campbell
- Looking calm as an eggshell —Edith Wharton
- (The April morning) mellow as milk —Sharon Sheehe Stark
- Mellow as moonlight —Slogan, Vogan Candy Co.
- Mellow as old brandy —Anon
- Mild as cottage cheese —Stephen Vincent Benet
- Mild as milk —Dame Edith Sitwell
- Nonchalant as a shoplifter in the checkout line —Donald McCaig
- The sea was calm like milk and water —Isak Dinesen
- The sense of rest, of having arrived at the long-promised calm centre, filled him like a species of sleep —John Updike
- Serene as a man who has just got a promotion and raise —Geoffrey Wolff
- Stayed calm, like a hero before the battle when all the cameras are on him —Clancy Sigal
- (Your opinion at the moment) worries me exactly as much as dandruff would a chopped-off head —William Mcllvanney
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms | Noun | 1. | calmness - steadiness of mind under stress; "he accepted their problems with composure and she with equanimity" | | 2. | calmness - an absence of strong winds or rainquiet, lull - a period of calm weather; "there was a lull in the storm" | | 3. | calmness - a feeling of calm; an absence of agitation or excitementfeeling - the experiencing of affective and emotional states; "she had a feeling of euphoria"; "he had terrible feelings of guilt"; "I disliked him and the feeling was mutual" agitation - the feeling of being agitated; not calm |
calmness
Translations calmness [ˈkɑːmnɪs] n (= tranquillity) → calme m
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