compose
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kəm-pōzʹ
ipa: /kəmˈpəʊz/
ipa: /kəmˈpoʊz/
ipa: /kəmˈpəʉz/
note: some speakers
ipa: [kəmˈpɐʉz]
ipa: /kəmˈpɐʉz/
rhymes: -əʊz
Forms: form: composes
form: composing
form: composed
form: composed
Etymology: From Middle English composen, from Old French composer (“to compose, compound, adjust, settle”), from com- + poser, as an adaptation of Latin componere (“to put together, compose”), from com- (“together”) + ponere (“to put, place”).
Senses: examples: text: The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.
text: December 22 1678, Thomas Sprat, A Sermon Preached before the King at White-Hall
Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.
glosses: To make something by merging parts.
examples: text: A church is composed of its members.
text: A few useful things […] compose their intellectual possessions.
ref: 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To make up the whole; to constitute.
glosses: To comprise.
examples: text: The orator composed his speech over the week prior.
text: Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.
text: It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.
text: Let me […] compose / Something in Verse as true as Prose.
ref: 1714, Alexander Pope, Imitation of Horace, Book II. Sat. 6:
text: the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"
ref: 1838, Benjamin Haydon, Painting, and the fine arts:
glosses: To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.
examples: text: Try to compose your thoughts.
text: The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.
text: Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To calm; to free from agitation.
glosses: To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
examples: text: By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision […]
ref: 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 280:
glosses: To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
examples: text: In a peaceful grave my corpse compose.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.
Synonyms: sense: make up the whole
word: constitute
word: form
word: indite
word: compose
word: compound
word: comprise
word: make up
word: represent
word: upmake
Hyponyms: word: essentiate
word: inorb
Derived terms: cocompose
composability
composable
composer
composing frame
composing rule
composing stick
composite
composition
compositor
composograph
composure
decompose
discompose
miscompose
photocompose
postcompose
precompose
recompose
through-composed
Related terms: word: composition