poise

Word family

poise1 /pɔɪz/ noun [uncountableU]

1 CALMa calm confident way of behaving, combined with an ability to control your feelings or reactions in difficult situations 镇定，自信，泰然自若，沉着

Louisa seems to have much more poise and confidence.

路易莎似乎更加沉着自信了。

2 GRACEFULa graceful way of moving or standing, so that your body seems balanced and not awkward 优雅的举止［体态，姿态］

the poise of a dancer

舞者的端庄体态

She’s pretty, but lacks poise.

她虽漂亮，但缺乏优雅的举止。

Examples from the Corpus

poise• Margerie was very beautiful, with the grace and poise of a movie star.• And it was a humdinger, delivered with passion and poise.• And yet this gangsta poise coexists with a weirdly playful quality.• The Bears were 13 points behind, but Coach Stenstrom maintained his poise and confidence.• Anne is tall and thin, but lacks poise.• On the other hand, I can think of no group that will handle defeat with more poise and grace.• Nigel was ostentatiously smoking a big cigar to give an illusion of poise.• Junior Marquez Shaw showed a lot of poise in completing nine of 12 passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns.• From a state of poise and self-confidence, she was suddenly overwhelmingly self-conscious.• With remarkable poise, he quickly put the two broken pieces in one hand and made an attempt to paddle canoe-style.• They felt that he lacked sufficient poise and confidence for the job.

poise2 verb [transitiveT always + adverbadv/prepositionprep]

BALANCEto put or hold something in a carefully balanced position, especially above something else 使平衡，使平稳

poise something over/above something

He poised the bottle over her glass. ‘More wine?’

他把酒瓶凑到她杯子上面:“还要酒吗？”

Examples from the Corpus

poise• Feel elegant and poised as you do them.• The man remained poised between the two like a bridge, without moving in one direction or the other.• To sit down in meditation and think of these mystical ideas is to poise oneself for the transcendent journey.• Bryant has a reputation as an unusually poised, thoughtful teenager, and Twardzik believes that those qualities would ripen in college.• He made it plain, quite quickly, that he was poised to adore Anna.• They are held together, poised upright like a pencil standing on its point, by the recursive dynamics of coevolution.

Origin poise

(1300-1400) Old French pois “weight, heaviness”, from Latin pensum, from pendere “to weigh”

poise1 nounpoise2 verb

Chinese

Corpus