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Require vs Compose - What's the difference?

require | compose |

As verbs the difference between require and compose

is that require is to ask (someone) for something; to request while compose is to make something by merging parts.

require

English

Verb

(requir)
  • (label) To ask (someone) for something; to request.
  • *, Bk.XI:
  • *:I requyre yow lete vs be sworne to gyders that neuer none of vs shalle after this day haue adoo with other, and there with alle syre Tristram and sire Lamorak sware that neuer none of hem shold fyghte ageynst other nor for wele, nor for woo.
  • *1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Mark V:
  • *:I requyre the in the name of god, that thou torment me nott.
  • To demand, to insist upon (having); to call for authoritatively.
  • *1998 , Joan Wolf, The Gamble , Warner Books:
  • *:"I am Miss Newbury," I announced, "and I require to be shown to my room immediately, if you please."
  • *2009 , Vikram Dodd, The Guardian , 29 December:
  • *:‘Regrettably, I have concluded, after considering the matter over Christmas, that I can no longer maintain the high standard of service I require of myself, meet the demands of office and cope with the pressures of public life, without my health deteriorating further.’
  • Naturally to demand (something) as indispensable; to need, to call for as necessary.
  • *1972 , "Aid for Aching Heads", Time , 5 June:
  • *:Chronic pain is occasionally a sign of a very serious problem, like brain tumors, and can require surgery.
  • *2009 , Julian Borger, The Guardian , 7 February:
  • *:A weapon small enough to put on a missile would require uranium enriched to more than 90% U-235.
  • To demand of (someone) to do something.
  • *1970 , "Compulsory Midi", Time , 29 June:
  • *:After Aug 3 all salesgirls will be required to wear only one style of skirt while on duty: the midi.
  • *2007 , Allegra Stratton, "Smith to ban non-EU unskilled immigrants from working in UK", The Guardian , 5 December:
  • *:The government would like to require non-British fiances who wish to marry a British citizen to sit an English test.
  • compose

    English

    (Composition)

    Verb

    (compos)
  • To make something by merging parts.
  • The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.
    Try to compose your thoughts.
  • * Bishop Sprat
  • Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.
  • To make up the whole; to constitute.
  • A church is composed of its members.
  • * I. Watts
  • A few useful things compose their intellectual possessions.
  • (nonstandard) To comprise.
  • (transitive, or, intransitive) To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.
  • The orator composed his speech over the week prior.
    Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.
    It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Let me compose / Something in verse as well as prose.
  • * B. R. Haydon
  • the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"
  • (sometimes, reflexive) To calm; to free from agitation.
  • The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.
  • * Dryden
  • Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.
  • To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
  • To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
  • * 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 280:
  • By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision
  • To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.
  • * Dryden
  • In a peaceful grave my corpse compose .
  • * Milton
  • How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.
  • (printing, dated) To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.
  • Derived terms

    * composer * composite * composing stick * composition * compositor * composure * decompose