Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Presence of mind   /prˈɛzəns əv maɪnd/   Listen
noun
Presence  n.  
1.
The state of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand; opposed to absence.
2.
The place in which one is present; the part of space within one's ken, call, influence, etc.; neighborhood without the intervention of anything that forbids intercourse. "Wrath shell be no more Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire."
3.
Specifically, neighborhood to the person of one of superior of exalted rank; also, presence chamber. "In such a presence here to plead my thoughts." "An't please your grace, the two great cardinals. Wait in the presence."
4.
The whole of the personal qualities of an individual; person; personality; especially, the person of a superior, as a sovereign. "The Sovran Presence thus replied."
5.
An assembly, especially of person of rank or nobility; noble company. "Odmar, of all this presence does contain, Give her your wreath whom you esteem most fair."
6.
Port, mien; air; personal appearence. "Rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect." "A graceful presence bespeaks acceptance."
Presence chamber, or Presence room, the room in which a great personage receives company. " Chambers of presence."
Presence of mind, that state of the mind in which all its faculties are alert, prompt, and acting harmoniously in obedience to the will, enabling one to reach, as it were spontaneously or by intuition, just conclusions in sudden emergencies.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Presence of mind" Quotes from Famous Books



... hadn't been so slippery," remarked the engineer. "If you could only have had presence of mind enough to have brought ...
— Frontier Boys in Frisco • Wyn Roosevelt

... husband may have been thinking, he had the presence of mind to hide his eyes in the water he had poured from the pitcher. He scooped it up now in double handfuls. He made a great splutter and soused his face in the bowl, and scrubbed the back of his neck and behind ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes

... by a party of the enemy, who fired at and pursued him. The fugitive being fortunate enough to escape their search, they returned to the house and charged the family with harbouring one of the proscribed traitors. An old woman had presence of mind enough to maintain that the man they had seen was the shepherd. 'Why did he not stop when we called to him?' said the soldier. 'He is as deaf, poor man, as a peat-stack,' answered the ready-witted domestic. 'Let him be sent for directly.' The real shepherd ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... case is altered; she finds herself altogether unprepared, and is overcome with terror and alarm. All the felicity of her married life may then hang on a few chances, her husband's skill and consideration, her own presence of mind. Hirschfeld records the case of an innocent young girl of seventeen—in this case, it eventually proved, an invert—who was persuaded to marry but on discovering what marriage meant energetically resisted her husband's sexual approaches. He appealed to her mother to explain to her daughter ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... blouse, his leggings, and muddy boots. His usual dainty ways made the details of this costume yet more shocking to him, and he exaggerated this little disaster. He felt degraded and almost ridiculous. The thought took away for a moment his presence of mind; he began mechanically to twirl his hat in his hands, exactly as if he had been Pere Rousselet himself. But instead of being hurtful to him, this awkwardness served him better than the eloquence of Rousseau or the coolness of Richelieu. Was it not a genuine triumph for Clemence to reduce a ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet


More quotes...



Copyright © 2026 e-Free Translation.com