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Poise   /pɔɪz/   Listen
noun
Poise  n.  (Formerly written also peise)  
1.
Weight; gravity; that which causes a body to descend; heaviness. "Weights of an extraordinary poise."
2.
The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
3.
The state of being balanced by equal weight or power; equipoise; balance; equilibrium; rest.
4.
That which causes a balance; a counterweight. "Men of unbounded imagination often want the poise of judgment."
5.
A dignified and self-confident manner; graceful composure and tact in handling difficult social situations.



verb
Poise  v. t.  (past & past part. poised; pres. part. poising)  (Formerly written also peise)  
1.
To balance; to make of equal weight; as, to poise the scales of a balance.
2.
To hold or place in equilibrium or equiponderance. "Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie."
3.
To counterpoise; to counterbalance. "One scale of reason to poise another of sensuality." "To poise with solid sense a sprightly wit."
4.
To ascertain, as by the balance; to weigh. "He can not sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence."
5.
To weigh (down); to oppress. (Obs.) "Lest leaden slumber peise me down to-morrow."



Poise  v. i.  To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt. "The slender, graceful spars Poise aloft in air."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Poise" Quotes from Famous Books



... of keeping this apex-thought in constant poise, let me reiterate one or two of the philosophical disasters which result from a cessation of its rhythmic function. When the reason, for instance, usurps the whole field and acts in isolation from the imagination and the intuition, it tends to persuade us to deny the very existence ...
— The Complex Vision • John Cowper Powys

... or sex or race. By all the proprieties of nature, woman should have with man a voice in the enactment of laws and the administration of government. She is the complement of man, essential for the due poise, the right wisdom, and conduct in family, in neighborhood, in Church or in State. Sharing in civil government, she will be a redemptive agency for society in many ways little thought at present. And agitation ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... poise and then a flying clutch, I accomplished; and with the rest of my descent I will not weary the reader. It was interminably slow, and it was laborious; but, to speak comparatively, it was safe. My boots lasted me to within twenty ...
— The Adventures of Harry Revel • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... another equally violent rush succeeded; and in its way toward the starboard quarter threw up a rolling wave thirty feet high, crowned by a blue square mass of many tons, resembling the entire side of a house, which, after hanging for some time in doubtful poise on the ridge, at length fell with a crash into the hollow, in which, as in a cavern, the after-part of the ship seemed embedded. It was, indeed, an awful crisis, rendered more frightful from the mistiness of the night ...
— The Ocean and its Wonders • R.M. Ballantyne

... closing the door behind him. He saw that they yet knew nothing—there had been no messenger, no telephone call, and the news was his to tell. He bowed to Mrs. Grayson, and then he felt a moment of embarrassment, but his long experience and natural poise came quickly to ...
— The Candidate - A Political Romance • Joseph Alexander Altsheler


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