poise
noun
[ pɔɪz ]
• graceful and elegant bearing in a person.
• "poise and good deportment can be cultivated"
• balance; equilibrium.
• "the balance has passed the point where the spring is in poise"
poise
verb
• be or cause to be balanced or suspended.
• "he poised motionless on his toes"
Similar:
balance,
hold (oneself) steady,
steady oneself,
be suspended,
hang suspended,
remain motionless,
hang in mid-air,
hang,
hover,
Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense ‘weight’): from Old French pois, peis (noun), peser (verb), from an alteration of Latin pensum ‘weight’, from the verb pendere ‘weigh’. From the early senses of ‘weight’ and ‘measure of weight’ arose the notion of ‘equal weight, balance’, leading to the extended senses ‘composure’ and ‘elegant bearing’.
poise
noun
• a unit of dynamic viscosity, such that a tangential force of one dyne per square centimetre causes a velocity change one centimetre per second between two parallel planes separated by one centimetre in a liquid.
Origin:
early 20th century: from the name of Jean L. M. Poiseuille (1799–1869), French physician.
