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poise

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poise¹

  • /pɔɪz/

Rhymes with -ɔɪz

Where it comes from

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 pendere (“to weigh, ponder, think”). Doublet of peise.

noun poises

  1. countable, uncountable A state of balance, equilibrium or stability. 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. countable, uncountable Composure; freedom from embarrassment or affectation.
  3. countable, uncountable Mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body.
  4. countable, uncountable A condition of hovering, or being suspended.
  5. countable, uncountable A CGS unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimetre. 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. countable, obsolete, uncountable Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs. as an huge rockie clift, / Whose false foundation waues haue washt away, / With dreadfull poyse is from the mayneland rift, / […] So downe he fell […]
  7. countable, uncountable The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
  8. countable, uncountable That which causes a balance; a counterweight. As for Hyperboles, I will neither quote Lucan, nor Statius, Men of an unbounded imagination, but who often wanted the Poyze of Judgement.

verb poises · poising · poised

  1. obsolete To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt. The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in the air.
  2. obsolete To counterpoise; to counterbalance. one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality
  3. obsolete To be of a given weight; to weigh.
  4. obsolete To add weight to, to weigh down. Every man poiseth [translating poise] upon his fellowes sinne, and elevates his owne.
  5. archaic To hold (something) with or against something else in equilibrium; to balance, counterpose. you saw her faire none els being by, / Her selfe poysd with her selfe in either eye.
  6. To hold (something) in equilibrium, to hold balanced and ready; to carry (something) ready to be used. I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.
  7. To keep (something) in equilibrium; to hold suspended or balanced. The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
  8. To ascertain, as if by balancing; to weigh. He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.

poise²

  • /pɔɪz/

Rhymes with -ɔɪz

Where it comes from

From French physicist and physiologist Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille.

noun poises

  1. Unit of viscosity in the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS).

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