v. Obs. [ad. L. compōnĕre to put together, compose, settle, etc., f. com- together + pōnĕre (:—posnere) to place, put. In early use, perh. sometimes to be referred to OF. compondre, pr. pple. componant, whence compoune, COMPOUND. It continued to be used, esp. in Scotland, in senses regularly taken up by COMPOUND and COMPOSE: cf. the analogous Sc. depone, propone, repone, etc., also the literary postpone.]
1. trans. To make up (of parts); to compose.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. i. (Tollem. MS.). His parties of þe whiche he is made and componed [compositus est].
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 11. Of so bright a hewe, being componed: for it is made of two bright colours, which is Redde and Yellowe.
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, xix. 61/2. Whose soul’s componed Of diverse powers and passions.
2. To make up or compose rhetorically.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 138. How Tullius his rhetorique Componeth.
3. To put together, assemble.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 2. This stone will attract, hold, disperse, and compone like a little earth other lesse Magnets.
4. To compose or settle (differences, troubles, etc.); to put in order, adjust.
1523. Wolsey, in Fiddes, Life, ii. (1726), 69. Thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs.
1541. St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 669. Some difference … whiche he trusted shulde be nowe well pacified, and shortelie componed.
a. 1555. Bp. Gardiner, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 146. II. 209. The Kynges Majestie hath, by the inspyracyon of the holy Ghost, componed all maters of Religion.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. (1887), 132. Quhen al things in yrland war weil componed.
b. To compose oneself, one’s gesture, etc.
1591. Bruce, 11 Serm., S ij a. (Jam.). To compone thy gesture, and refraine thy tongue.
5. intr. To make an arrangement, settlement, or bargain; to compound with debtors or offenders.
1478. Paston Lett., III. 217. If ye myght compone with hym or he wyst what the valew wer, it wer the better.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 93. The Menne of the Wichis componid with the Abbay that ther should be no Salt made.
1582–8. Hist. Jas. VI. (1804), 239. He hade his interpretors, quha componit with all pairties according to his awin directioun.
6. To make composition (for a debt, offense, or privilege); to compound.
c. 1460. Henryson, Mor. Fables, Tale of Dog, 126. Slave sall he be, or with the Juge compone.
c. 1565. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (1814), I. 20. He [the Governor] compelled thame to compone for thamselfis.
a. 1639. Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scot., V. (1677), 273. People of all sorts being forced to compone and redeem themselves.
1645. Baillie, Lett. (1841), II. 320. If we be not willing to compone in what tearms, both for religion and state, they please.
