From Middle English poys, poyse, from Anglo-Norman pois, Middle French pois and Anglo-Norman poise, Middle French poise, from Latin penso.

• enPR: poyz, IPA: /pɔɪz/

poise

1. A state of balance, equilibrium or stability.
   • 1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:

     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. 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. (physics) A CGS unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimetre.
   • 1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415:

     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. (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     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. The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
8. That which causes a balance; a counterweight.
   • 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 Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC ↗, page 25 ↗:

     As for Hyperboles, I will neither quote Lucan, nor Statius, Men of an unbounded imagination, but who often wanted the Poyze of Judgement.

• peso
• pansy
• pensive
• avoirdupois

• Spanish: contrapeso

• German: Gleichgewicht, Fassung
• Italian: stato di grazia
• Russian: равнове́сие

• French: assurance, aisance, sang-froid, aplomb
• German: Gelassenheit, Fassung
• Portuguese: compostura
• Russian: уравнове́шенность
• Spanish: ponderación

• German: Haltung, Ausdruck

• French: poise
• German: Poise
• Italian: poise
• Portuguese: poise
• Spanish: poise

poise (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.
   • 1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Seaside and the Fireside:

     The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in the air.

2. (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
   • c. 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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     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. [14th]
4. (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down. [16th]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:

     Every man poiseth [translating 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.]
   • 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

     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

   • 1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid's Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     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.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

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

• Russian: изготавливаться