sedate
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /sɪˈdeɪt/
ipa: /səˈdeɪt/
rhymes: -eɪt
Forms: form: more sedate
form: sedater
form: most sedate
form: sedatest
Etymology: The verb is first attested in 1646, the adjective in 1661; borrowed from Latin sēdātus, perfect passive participle of sēdō (“to settle”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Senses: examples: text: […] they will rashly huddle up all together, and not admitting the least check of a sedate judgement, publish onely the impetuous dictates of their indiscreet and too precipitant fancie […]
ref: 1642, Richard Watson, A Sermon Touching Schisme, Cambridge: Roger Daniel, page 27:
text: But who like thee can boast a Soul sedate, / So firmly Proof to all the Shocks of Fate?
ref: 1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book 3”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 5, lines 87-88:
text: The animadverſions of critics are commonly ſuch as may eaſily provoke the ſedateſt vvriter to ſome quickneſs of reſentment and aſperity of reply.
ref: 1751 December 4 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 176. Saturday, November 23. 1751.”, in The Rambler, volume VII, Edinburgh: […] Sands, Murray, and Cochran; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1752, →OCLC, page 128:
text: A reel or fling of some sort was in progress; and the usually sedate Farfrae was in the midst of the other dancers in the costume of a wild Highlander, flinging himself about and spinning to the tune.
ref: 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 16, in The Mayor of Casterbridge:
text: Then she saw that they were waving their handkerchiefs; dipping them up and down, with a curiously sedate, formal motion.
ref: 1989, Hilary Mantel, chapter 9, in Fludd, New York: Henry Holt, published 2000, page 149:
synonyms: word: placid
word: staid
word: unruffled
word: calm
word: collected
word: composed
word: cool-headed
word: equable
word: equanimous
word: equanimitable
word: even-keeled
word: even-minded
word: even-tempered
word: imperturbable
word: laid-back
word: level-headed
word: mellow
word: pacate
word: pacific
word: peaceable
word: peaceful
word: phlegmatic
word: placid
word: quiescent
word: quiet
word: relaxed
word: roolie
word: sedate
word: serene
word: still
word: tranquil
word: unexcited
word: unfazed
word: unflappable
word: unflustered
word: unperturbable
word: unruffable
word: unruffled
word: untumultuous
word: austere
word: frightful
word: demure
word: serious
word: grave
word: earnest
word: grievous
word: lack-laughter
word: thoughtful
word: sad
word: sage
word: saturnine
word: sedate
word: solemn
word: solemncholy
word: sober
word: somber
word: sombre
word: staid
word: stern
word: sweer
word: weightsome
word: weighty
glosses: Remaining composed and dignified, and avoiding too much activity or excitement.
raw_tags: of a person or their behaviour
examples: text: Sometimes she passed down avenues of sedate mansions, soberly numbered ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and so on right up to two or three hundred, each the copy of the other, with two pillars and six steps and a pair of curtains neatly drawn […]
ref: 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 6, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
text: The shiny carriages of Yankee officers’ wives and newly rich Carpetbaggers splashed mud on the dilapidated buggies of the townspeople, and gaudy new homes of wealthy strangers crowded in among the sedate dwellings of older citizens.
ref: 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 37, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:
text: Facing the Parliament Buildings across James’ Bay arose a sedate stone and cement Post Office.
ref: 1942, Emily Carr, “Grown Up”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:
text: The great hotel, with its look of sedate luxury, brooded massively there with people teeming about it.
ref: 1985, Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist, London: Jonathan Cape, page 352:
synonyms: unobtrusive
antonyms: obtrusive
qualifier: particularly a building
glosses: Not overly ornate or showy.
raw_tags: of an object
Derived terms: sedately
sedateness