English

Noun

poise ‎(uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xii:

     as an huge rockie clift, / Whose false foundation waues haue washt away, / With dreadfull poyse is from the mayneland rift, / [...] So downe he fell [...].

2. The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
3. That which causes a balance; a counterweight.
   • Dryden

     Men of unbounded imagination often want the poise of judgment.

4. A state of balance, equilibrium or stability.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bentley to this entry?)

5. Composure; freedom from embarrassment or affectation.
6. Mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body.
7. A condition of hovering, or being suspended.
8. (physics) A cgs unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimeter.

Derived terms

• centipoise

Translations

Verb

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.
   • Longfellow

     The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in air.

2. (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
   • Shakespeare

     one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality

   • Dryden

     to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit

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.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.2:

     Every man poiseth [transl. poise] upon his fellowes sinne, and elevates his owne.

5. (now rare) To hold (something) with or against something else in equilibrium; to balance, counterpose. [from 16th c.]
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, I.2:

     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. [from 16th c.]

   I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.

   to poise the scales of a balance

   • Dryden

     Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie.

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.
   • South

     He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.

Translations

Old French

Alternative forms

• peise (Anglo-Norman)

Noun

poise 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

• English: poise (borrowed)

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (poise)