aplomb

plural aplombs

1. uncountableusuallySelf-confidence; poise; composure.

   His nonchalance and aplomb during hard times have always been his best character trait.

   5 more examples

   “Oh, Wooster,” he said, “I was talking to my mother a night or two ago.” “Oh, yes?” I said, with a slight wave of the hand intended to indicate that if he liked to talk to his mother anywhere, all over the house, he had my approval. “She tells me you are interested in mice.” I didn't like the trend the conversation was taking, but I preserved my aplomb. “Why, yes, fairly interested.” “She says she found you trying to catch one in my bedroom!”

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

   We can handle functions of a few variables with some aplomb and view sets of quantities totalling IO6 or IO7 with sangfroid.

   1961, Richard Bellman, Adaptive Control Processes: A Guided Tour, Princeton University Press, page 197

   They have a seven-year-old son named Timothy, never called Timmy or Tim; a little scrawny guy who wears thick glasses already, and who tucks his striped T-shirts into his pants with the aplomb of a silver-templed CEO.

   2000, Elizabeth Berg, Range of Motion

   Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson put his below-par performance against Argentina behind him with a fine first-half showing, slotting four kicks from six and controlling his back-line with aplomb, while England's three-quarters were brimming with life and clinical with their execution.

   2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport

   Installing lift shafts in station buildings which were not originally designed to accommodate them can be a fraught exercise, but a necessary one if the legitimate aspiration of the travelling public for step-free access is to be achieved. At Sudbury Hill, on London Underground's Piccadilly Line extension out to the north-western suburbs, Transport for London has achieved this with aplomb.

   2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A royal occasion as heritage projects honoured: Sudbury Hill”, in RAIL, number 972, page 57

2. uncountableusuallyballetThe apparent elegance and precision exhibited by a confident, accomplished dancer.
3. uncountableusuallyThe perpendicular; perpendicularity.