Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Calm, confident, and in control of one's feelings and behavior, especially in difficult or stressful situations: The word describes someone who maintains composure and self-assurance.

Usage

• General Use: Used to describe a person's demeanor, particularly when facing pressure or unexpected events.
• Typical Contexts: Often appears in descriptions of character, behavior in interviews, crises, public speaking, or social situations requiring poise.

Examples

Advanced Usage

• "To be self-possessed": To inherently possess or consistently display this quality of calm control.
  • Even as a child, she was remarkably self-possessed.
• "With self-possessed grace": Used adverbially to describe how an action is performed.
  • He handled the criticism with self-possessed grace.

Variants and Related Words

• Self-possession (noun): The quality or state of being self-possessed.
  • Her self-possession in the debate was impressive.

Synonyms

• Collected: Calm and composed.
• Poised: Having a composed, self-assured manner.
• Assured: Confident and certain.
• Composed: Calm and in control of one's emotions.

Antonyms

• Flustered: Agitated or confused.
• Nervous: Easily agitated or alarmed; anxious.
• Discomposed: Disturbed or agitated.

Adjective

1. in full control of your faculties
   • the witness remained collected throughout the cross-examination
   • perfectly poised and sure of himself
   • more self-contained and more dependable than many of the early frontiersmen
   • strong and self-possessed in the face of trouble