to poise

Examples

• All

• Wait, you say, Fingers poised to type a scathing comment.

• The athlete poised the javelin above his head, ready to make the throw.

• The old man held a can of water poised over a plant, waiting.

  Fiction book (1991)

• The whole thing remained poised in the air far above the lake.

  Fiction book (1992)

• The heavy lamp was poised, ready to smash down on anything beyond the door.

  Fiction book (1996)

• The Chinese teachers we met were well-dressed and perfectly poised when they were teaching.

  Academic text (1992)

• On this desk is a hatchet resting in a block of wood, poised like a judge's hammer.

  Fiction book (1998)

• Bromios had been standing with one foot rooted to the ground, the other poised in midstride.

  Fiction book (1995)

• "What's the child's name?" the volunteer said, his pen poised over a clipboard.

  Fiction book (1995)

• She poised herself gracefully on one leg, preparing for her ballet performance.

Synonyms

B

to balance

vsto poise

285 2.0

To keep something steady so it does not fall

adds a graceful, suspended quality rather than only preventing falling

S

to steady

vsto poise

41 3.4

To make yourself or something stop moving

keeps an object gracefully suspended rather than describing the stabilizing process

H

to hold steady

vsto poise

17 2.9

Keep something or someone in place and still

focuses on grace and suspension rather than rigid immobility

Antonyms

D

to drop

∞ 1.0

To let something fall suddenly or by accident

U

to unbalance

2 4.8

To make something unstable or uneven

Compounds

G

grace and poise

1 3.9

A calm, elegant way of moving and behaving

How Steady

to stabilize

• US

197 3.7

to poise

8 4.8

to steady

41 3.4

to hold

840 1.4

to teeter

32 5.7

to wobble

40 3.8

Surface Forms

Etymology