calmed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of calm.

   The nurse calmed the anxious patient before the procedure began.

   His voice had calmed by the time he reached the end of the story.

   Note

   One regular spelling covers both the simple past and the participle, and both directions of the verb: someone calmed the crowd, or the crowd itself calmed. With have it forms the perfect in either use (the wind had calmed). With be it forms the passive, which only the transitive verb allows (the patient was calmed by the nurse).

2. 2
   adjective

   Brought to a more settled and peaceful state than before, after a period of agitation or excitement.

   The newly calmed patient rested quietly once the medication took effect.

   Calmed waters let the small fishing boats return to the harbor.

   Similarsettled

   Oppositeagitated

   Note

   A participle that has hardened into an adjective, and it behaves like one. It takes degree words (very calmed, less calmed, more and most calmed) and sits before a noun, as in the calmed mind. Calm simply names a state, but calmed carries a history: something was unsettled, and something settled it. That is also the line between it and the verb form. Here no action is happening, only its result.

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