Word.ws English Dictionary

poise

/pɔɪz/

poise noun: a state of balance, equilibrium or stability.

Noun (1)

poise (countable and uncountable, plural poises)

  1. 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 poise1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693
  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. 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, […]1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415
  6. (obsolete) 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 […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  7. The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
  8. 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.1674 (date written), John Dryden, “The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry; and Poetique Licence”, in The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry...

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.
    • The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in the air.1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Seaside and the Fireside
  2. (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
    • one scale of reason to poise another of sensualityc. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Dryden
  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.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
  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.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  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.
    • to poise the scales of a balance
  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.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

Noun (2)

poise (plural poises)

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

poise meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

poise in Tamil

சமநிலை, நிறைநிலை, போயிசு, ஈடு

poise in Urdu

سادھنا

poise in Bengali

সাম্যাবস্থা, আত্মবিশ্বাসী ভঙ্গি

poise in Malayalam

ഭാരം ഒപ്പിക്കുക, എതിരായി വയ്ക്കുക, തൂക്കുക, തുലനം ചെയ്യുക
More languagesFewer languages
poise in Kannada
ಭಂಗಿ, ನಿಲುವು, ಸರಿತೂಕ, ಅಗ್ಗಳೆ

Examples of poise in a sentence

  • Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie.1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
  • The intention to close [Yeovil] Pen Mill was therefore abandoned and instead the economy axe was re-poised over Yeovil Junction.1964 November, J. H. Lucking, “The Salisbury-Exeter rationalisation—first results and local reaction”, in Modern Railways, page 331:

All 16 example sentences with poise

Forms of poise

Noun
pluralpoises
Verb
third-person singular presentpoises
present participlepoising
past participlepoised
pastpoised

Past tense of poise: poised

Origin of poise

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.

From French physicist and physiologist Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille.

Words formed from poise

Words that rhyme with poise

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about poise

What does poise mean?
Poise means a state of balance, equilibrium or stability.
What is poise in Tamil?
Poise in Tamil is சமநிலை, நிறைநிலை, போயிசு. See Poise meaning in Tamil.
How do you use poise in a sentence?
Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie.
What part of speech is poise?
Poise can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce poise?
Poise is pronounced /pɔɪz/.
What is the plural of poise?
The plural of poise is poises.

Words near poise in the dictionary

  1. Poirotian
  2. Poirots
  3. Poirrier
  4. Poirriers
  5. pois
  6. poise
  7. poised
  8. poiseless
  9. poiselessness
  10. poiser
  11. poisers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poise (page history and authors); poise (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poise (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poise (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poise (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poise (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-poise.wav.

Cite this entry: “poise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.