a. [SOBER a. 14.]
1. Of a sober mind; temperate; self-controlled; rational; sensible. Also absol.
1534. Tindale, Titus ii. 4. To make the younge wemen sobremynded. Ibid., 6. Yonge men lykwyse exhorte that they be sobre mynded.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. 1851, III. 279. To teach and convince the rationall and sober-minded.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Women (1767), I. iii. 110. Women well-bred and sober-minded at the same time.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 306/1. The views of some of the modern and more sober-minded zoologists.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. xvi. 493. ‘We will die upon the place first,’ declared even the sober-minded.
2. Characterized by soberness of mind.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xlvii. Her words … were … too vehement and extravagant for sober-minded communication.
1870. L’Estrange, Life Miss Mitford, I. v. 162. A purpose which, I think, was extremely soberminded and praiseworthy.
Hence Sober-mindedness, sobriety of mind; prudent self-control, moderation.
1767. Porteus, Serm. bef. Univ. Cambr., 5 July, 7. To induce habits of modesty, humility, temperance, frugality, obedience; in one word, Sober-mindedness.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 137. A despotism, moderated only by the wisdom, the sobermindedness [1854 sobriety], and the magnanimity of the despot.
1875. Farrar, Seekers after God, II. i. 198. Now sober-mindedness invites us.
