Words / C2

STOL-id/ˈstɒlɪd/

Stolid means calm, dependable, and showing little emotion or imagination: a stolid manner, stolid resistance. Calm is everyday and kinder; impassive is the close twin. Phlegmatic is unexcitable. Do not read a required fire notice as stolid because it is plain.

Meaning

Calm, dependable, and showing little emotion or imagination.

Examples

• “A stolid shrug is not a fire-door minute.”
• “Calm is everyday. Impassive is close. Taciturn is of few words (already in C2) — a different vice of silence. Saturnine (this batch) is gloomy, not merely unmoved. A dry signature can be right. A shrug that leaves the door chained is neglect. Write the owner; feeling can wait.”

Good to know

Unemotional; impassive. Everyday: unemotional / calm. Close: impassive. Contrast: taciturn (few words — already in C2); saturnine (gloomy — this batch). A shrug is not a minute.

Near in meaning

calm

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