Meanings
- rareuncountableThe quality of being calmable.
3 more examples
Calmability, capacity for pacification by the mother’s devices, is part of the baby’s capacity to evoke care from a care-giver by actively contributing to the care-giver’s emotional state—making mother feel good, competent, and fulfilled, as opposed to feeling rejected by her own baby, incompetent, and helpless to give the baby the care he demands and needs (42).
1981, Ronald Levy, “Mother-Infant Relations in the Feeding Situation”, in Emanuel Lebenthal, editor, Textbook of Gastroenterology and Nutrition in Infancy, volumes 1 (Gastrointestinal Development and Perinatal Nutrition), New York, N.Y.: Raven Press, →ISBN, page 635, column 2In some cases you would shelter in place and in some cases you would evacuate. And if you think that through ahead of time and talk with your family about it, practice it in your schools, workplaces, et cetera, there's going to be a lot more calmability to tune in, get the instructions and follow them.
2004 September 22, Patricia McGinnis, quotee, “U.S. Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) Holds Hearing on Emergency Warning Systems”, in Political Transcript Wire, Lanham, Md., →OCLCIt is well-known—from personal experience by shelter workers and more recently by scientific studies—that the behavior of an animal plays a prominent role in that animal’s chances of being adopted. Favored traits include friendliness, spending more time at the front of the enclosure, calmability, controllability, and trainability (McCobb et al., 2005).
2013, Franklin D. McMillan, “Quality of Life, Stress, and Emotional Pain in Shelter Animals”, in Lila Miller, Stephen Zawistowski, editors, Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff, 2nd edition, Ames, Ia.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, section 2 (Husbandry), page 83, column 1
Origin
Cite this entry
calmability. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/calmability
“calmability.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/calmability. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “calmability,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/calmability.
Source: calmability on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.