poize

Noun

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

See all 17 meanings of poise