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PRESENCE OF MIND
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Self-control in a crisis; ability to say or do the right thing in an emergency
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("presence of mind" is a kind of...):
possession; self-command; self-control; self-possession; self-will; will power; willpower (the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior)
Context examples:
He walked away again immediately, and she was left to fret over her own want of presence of mind; Charlotte tried to console her: I dare say you will find him very agreeable.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The case seemed wholly desperate and deplorable; and this magnificent palace would have infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Ever since the service he rendered Jane at Weymouth, when they were out in that party on the water, and she, by the sudden whirling round of something or other among the sails, would have been dashed into the sea at once, and actually was all but gone, if he had not, with the greatest presence of mind, caught hold of her habit— (I can never think of it without trembling!)—But ever since we had the history of that day, I have been so fond of Mr. Dixon!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
"Oh, really, I beg pardon. It's an uncommonly fine one, isn't it?" said Tudor, with great presence of mind, and an air of sober interest that did credit to his breeding.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Mr. Chillip was so alarmed by her abruptness—as he told my mother afterwards—that it was a mercy he didn't lose his presence of mind.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I fell over head and ears, and, if I had not been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard with me; for Glumdalclitch in that instant happened to be at the other end of the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted presence of mind to assist me.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Laurie, though decidedly amazed, behaved with great presence of mind.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
A pretty girl, who had her ears stopped with her apron, and her eyes upon the door, screamed when I appeared, supposing me to be a spirit; but the others had more presence of mind, and were glad of an addition to their company.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
