poise

noun

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.”

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

verb

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”

   “1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Dryden to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit”

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.”

   “to poise the scales of a balance”

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

   “The intention to close [Yeovil] Pen Mill was therefore abandoned and instead the economy axe was re-poised over Yeovil Junction.”

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.”