phlegmatic

comparative more phlegmatic · superlative most phlegmatic · alternative phlegmatick · alternative phlegmaticke · alternative phlegmatique

1. Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.

   Calm and phlegmatic, with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.

   1873, Jules Verne, chapter 2, in Around the World in 80 Days, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2012

   2 more examples

   His head was bare, and though he moved with the speed we have mentioned, the Knight of the Sorrowful Face saw and noted all these details; he tried to follow him but could not because it was beyond the strength of Rocinante to travel that rugged ground, especially since he was by nature slow-paced and phlegmatic.

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 178

   2013, A.O. Scott, “How It Looks to Think: Watch Her,” Rev. of Hannah Arendt, dir. by Margarethe von Trotta, New York Times 29 May 2013: C1. Print. Their friendship (immortalized in a splendid volume of letters that has clearly served as one of Ms. von Trotta's sources) is a fascinating study in cultural and temperamental contrast, an impulsive and witty American paired with a steady, phlegmatic German.

   Synonyms: apathetic, cold-blooded, phlegmish, unflappable, stoic, adiaphroistic, apathetic, apathistical

2. Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.

   phlegmatic humors

   3 more examples

   cold and phlegmatic bodies

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

   Near-synonyms: phlegmish, phlegmy

   a phlegmatic constitution

   Synonyms: phlegmatous, phlegmish, phlegmy

plural phlegmatics · alternative phlegmatick · alternative phlegmaticke · alternative phlegmatique

1. One who has a phlegmatic disposition.