different between poise vs counteract

English

Etymology

From Middle English poys, poyse, from Anglo-Norman pois, Middle French pois (“weight”) and Anglo-Norman poise, Middle French poise (“measure of weight”), from Latin p?ns?re (“to ponder, weight, think”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: poyz, IPA^(key): /p??z/
• Rhymes: -??z

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 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.
6. (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
7. The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
8. That which causes a balance; a counterweight.
   • 1677, John Dryden, The State of Innocence

     Men of an unbounded imagination […] often wanted the poise of judgment.

Derived terms

Related terms

• peso
• pansy
• pensive
• avoirdupois

Translations

Verb

poise (third-person singular simple present 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.
   • 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-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down. [16th-18th c.]
5. (now rare) To hold (something) with or against something else in equilibrium; to balance, counterpose. [from 16th c.]
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, I.2:

     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
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.

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

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• poise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• speoi

Old French

Alternative forms

• peise (Anglo-Norman)

Noun

poise f (oblique plural poises, nominative singular poise, nominative plural poises)

1. weight
2. a unit of measure of unknown value (which presumably varied because of the technology of the time)

Descendants

• ? English: poise

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (poise)

English

Etymology

From counter- +? act.

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /?ka?nt???ækt/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /?ka?nt???ækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

counteract (plural counteracts)

1. An action performed in opposition to another action.

Verb

counteract (third-person singular simple present counteracts, present participle counteracting, simple past and past participle counteracted)

1. To have a contrary or opposing effect or force on
   • 1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, or, the Laws of Organic Life

     Another tide is raised at the same time on the opposite side of the revolving earth; which is owing to the greater centrifugal motion of that side of the earth, which counteracts the gravitation of bodies near its surface.

   • 1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica - Dome

     In India, in the “great mosque” of Jama Masjid (a.d. 1560) and the Gol Gumbaz, or tomb of Mahommed Adil Shah (a.d. 1630) at Bijapur, the domes are carried on pendentives consisting of arches crossing one another and projecting inwards, and their weight counteracts any thrust there may be in the dome.

2. To deliberately act in opposition to, to thwart or frustrate
   • 2016, Margaret Corvid writing in the New Statesman, Five practical things you can do to fight Donald Trump if you live in the UK

     When people hear my American accent, they want to talk to me about Donald Trump. They want to ask me what happened, and why. But most of all, they ask me – with fear filling their voices – what they can do, as individuals, to counteract him, here, from the United Kingdom.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived terms

Translations