Wiktionary

poise

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English poys, poyse, from Anglo-Norman pois, Middle French pois (“weight”) and Anglo-Norman poise, Middle French poise (“measure of weight”), from Latin pēnsāre (“to ponder, weight, think”).

Pronunciation edit

  • enPR: poyz, IPA(key): /pɔɪz/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔɪz

Noun edit

poise (countable and uncountable, plural poises)

  1. A state of balance, equilibrium or stability.
    • 1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:
      plants and animals, which are all made up of and nourished by water, and perhaps never return to water again, do not keep things at a poise
  2. Composure; freedom from embarrassment or affectation.
  3. Mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body.
  4. A condition of hovering, or being suspended.
  5. (physics) A CGS unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimetre.
    • 1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415:
      Letterpress and offset gloss varnishes normally have viscosities varying from 50 to 250 poises; they must stain the paper as little as possible, have insufficient tack to cause plucking, […]
  6. (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
  7. The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
  8. That which causes a balance; a counterweight.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body

Verb edit

poise (third-person singular simple present poises, present participle poising, simple past and past participle poised)

  1. (obsolete) To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.
  2. (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
  3. (obsolete) To be of a given weight; to weigh. [14th–17th c.]
  4. (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down. [16th–18th c.]
  5. (now rare) To hold (something) with or against something else in equilibrium; to balance, counterpose. [from 16th c.]
  6. To hold (something) in equilibrium, to hold balanced and ready; to carry (something) ready to be used. [from 16th c.]
    I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.
    to poise the scales of a balance
    • 1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie.
    • 1964 November, J. H. Lucking, “The Salisbury-Exeter rationalisation—first results and local reaction”, in Modern Railways, page 331:
      The intention to close [Yeovil] Pen Mill was therefore abandoned and instead the economy axe was re-poised over Yeovil Junction.
  7. To keep (something) in equilibrium; to hold suspended or balanced. [from 17th c.]
    The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
  8. To ascertain, as if by balancing; to weigh.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:
      He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Old French edit

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

poise oblique singular, f (oblique plural poises, nominative singular poise, nominative plural poises)

  1. weight
  2. a unit of measure of unknown value (which presumably varied because of the technology of the time)

Descendants edit

  • → English: poise

References edit

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (poise)

Portuguese edit

Verb edit

poise

  1. inflection of poisar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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