self-command
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of self-command
First recorded in 1690–1700
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Thus is the hero of the film, played with charismatic self-command by Denzel Washington, presented as the Spartacus of his people.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 9, 2018
I take the phrase as an instruction, a self-command.
From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2017
But Affleck, giving the finest performance of an already impressive career opposite the always astonishing Williams, denies us the relief of that catharsis by underplaying the transitions between sorrow and self-command.
From Slate • Nov. 18, 2016
But he had self-command: He knew he grew too nervous and overinvolved in watching Chris’s matches, so he made himself stay home.
From Washington Post • Aug. 25, 2015
“You began the evening well, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Bennet with civil self-command to Miss Lucas.
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
![]()
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.