| 释义 |
▪ I. poise, n.1|pɔɪz|
Forms: 5 poys, 5–6 pois, 5–7 poyse, 6–7 poiz, poyze, 6–8 poize, 7 poix, 8 poice, 5– poise.
[late ME. poys, a. Central OF. pois (now poids), from earlier OF. peis weight = Pr., Cat. pes, Sp., Pg., It. peso:—late pop. L. pēsum for cl. L. pensum weight, from pendĕre to weigh. Cf. peise n.]
I. Weight.
†1. The quality of being heavy; heaviness, weight. Also in semi-concr. sense; cf. weight, load, burden. Obs.
c1430Lydg. Chorle & Byrde (1818) 15, I to haue more poise closid in myn entraille Than alle my body set for the counteruaylle. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxv. 153 The toure was of merueyllouse poys and heuy. 1612Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. iii. 49 As if their owne poize did..giue them that proper place. 1615Markham Eng. Housew. (1660) 169 For the holding the grain and water, whose poyse and weight might otherwise endanger a weaker substance. 1665Evelyn Let. 9 Sept. in Diary, etc. (1827) IV. 157 We should succumb under the poiz.
†b. fig. ‘Weight’; gravity, importance; load, burden; burdensomeness. Obs.
1460Rolls of Parlt. V. 375/1 As the mater is so high, and of soo grete wyght and poyse. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. vii. 15 Their offyce passeth in poys and perill alle other. 1593Southwell St. Peter's Compl. 67 My sinnes doe ouer⁓charge thy brest, The poyse therof doth force thy knees to bow. 1657W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Diat. iii. 140 The poyse of Charity must incline the beam toward the better part. 1752Hume Pol. Disc. xi. 270 To put all these circumstances in the scale, and assign to each of them its proper poize and influence.
†2. Definite or specified weight; the amount that a thing weighs. Obs.
1425Rolls of Parlt. IV. 290 Wolles of gretter poyse thenne were contened in thaire Cokett. 1481Caxton Myrr. ii. xxviii. 121 After that it is of poyse. 1580Reg. Gild Co. Chr. York (1872) 310 Poiz nyne unces and half an unce. 1620in Rymer Fœdera (1710) XVII. 195 Poix, altogither One hundred twentie and three Ounces. 1706Maule Hist. Picts iii. 20 Brazen Pieces, or Rings of Iron duly weighed and tried to just Poise.
†b. A measure or standard of weight. Obs.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 183 One hundred talentes, that is of englishe poyse, nyne thousande three hundred poundes of weight. 1555Eden Decades 234 They are soulde by a poyse or weight which they caule Mangiar. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 408, 300 shekles of brasse, which make nine pound three quarters of our poizes.
†3. concr. A weight; a piece of some heavy substance used for some purpose on account of its weight, e.g. a weight of a clock. Obs.
1531Elyot Gov. i. xvi, Laborynge with poyses made of leadde or other metall. 1533― Cast. Helthe (1539) 51 Takyng vp plummettes or other lyke poyses on the endes of staues,..these do exercise the backe and loynes. 1561–2in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 282 To the plum'er for casting of the poyses for the chyme and clok. a1613Overbury A Wife, &c. (1638) 104 It keeps his mind in a continuall motion, as the poise the clocke. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 323/2 The Shanks or Arms, and the Poises or Lead Balls at the ends.
b. fig. Something that acts like a weight; a bias; one of the halteres of a fly: see poiser 2. Now rare or Obs.
1615T. Adams Lycanthropy Ep. Ded. 2, I have seldom pretended that common poyse, that..sets so many mad pens, like wheeles, a running, importunacy of friends. 1713Derham Phys. Theol. viii. iv. 406 These Poises or Pointils are, for the most part, little Balls set at the top of a Slender Stalk, which they can move every way at pleasure. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. iii. xxxv. 162 It of course fell where they had given the poise, which was on the right side. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. ix, Such a hint was likely enough to give an adverse poise to Gwendolen's own thought.
†4. Forcible impact, as of a heavy body; momentum; a heavy blow or fall. Obs.
c1489Caxton Blanchardyn li. 194 Sadoyne,..wyth xv. thousaund gode knyghtes, valyaunt & hardy, that al at one poyse smot hem self wythin Alymodes folke. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 207 The Ramme that batters downe the wall, For the great swing and rudenesse of his poize, They place before his hand that made the Engine.
II. Equality of weight, balance.
5. equal poise or even poise: The condition of being equally weighted on both sides; balance, equilibrium, equipoise. lit. and fig.
1555Eden Decades 94 A payre of balances whose weyght inclynynge from the equall poyse in the myddest towarde eyther of the sydes. a1650Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro Wks. (1904) 276 O Heart! the æquall poise of love's both parts. 1692Norris Curs. Refl. 1 This already reduces me to an even Poise. 1742Young Nt. Th. viii. 797 And that demands a mind in equal poize. 1875Jowett Plato, Phaedrus (ed. 2) II. 124 The chariots of the gods in even poise, obeying the rein, glide rapidly.
6. Hence absol., in sense of 5: Balance, equilibrium (in reference to material things).
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. i. iii. 215 The Central Powers, which hold the lasting Orbs in their just Poize and Movement. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 253 The animal..loses his poise,..gasps and apparently dies. 1827Hood Hero & Leander xvii, Panting, at poise, upon a rocky crest! 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 324/2 Which accelerates its velocity until the balance has passed the point where the spring is in poise.
b. The way in which the body, head, etc., is poised; carriage.
1770Phil. Trans. LX. 310 Great attention should always be had to the poize of the body. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola v, An expression carried out in the backward poise of the girl's head. 1875Manning Mission H. Ghost ii. 46 Some infirmity, either of the eye, or the hand, or of our posture, or of our poise and balance.
c. A balanced or hovering condition; suspense of movement; a pause between two periods of motion or change.
1867Swinburne W. Blake (1868) 57 With tender poise of pausing feet. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. Introd. 13 The Muse will not descend from her airy poise. 1878R. W. Gilder Poet & Master 14 At the poise of the flying year. 1889Sir F. Leighton in Times 11 Dec. 7/1 The poise of the flood-tide..was only of brief duration.
7. fig. Balance, equilibrium, steadiness, stability (in reference to abstract or immaterial things).
1649Lovelace Poems (1864) 82 Sweet as her voyce That gave each winding law and poyze. 1728–46Thomson Spring 277 All Is off the poise within. 1801Coxe Trav. Switz. (ed. 4) I. Introd. 32 The government, losing its poise, was only considered as a provisional committee. 1901A. Shaw in Contemp. Rev. Nov. 610 Men who have at the same time the intellectual range and poise that he has acquired.
b. The condition of being equally balanced between alternatives; state of indecision; suspense.
1713Pope Let. to Addison 14 Dec., 'Tis enough to make one remain stupify'd in a poize of inaction. 1787Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 145 The event was long on the poise. 1875Stedman Vict. Poets 407 Great affairs of state hang at poise.
▪ II. poise, n.2 Physics.|pwɑːz, pɔɪz|
Pl. poises, poise.
[f. Poiseuille.]
The unit of (dynamic) viscosity in the C.G.S. system, equal to one gramme per centimetre-second; in the International System of Units replaced by the pascal second (equal to 10 poises). Symbol P.
1913Deeley & Parr in Phil. Mag. XXVI. 87 It would be a distinct advantage to have a name for the unit of viscosity expressed in C.G.S. units, and we would suggest that the word Poise be used for this; for it is to Poiseuille that we owe the experimental demonstration that when a liquid flows through a capillary tube..at constant temperature, the viscosity is constant at all rates of shear, provided that the flow is not turbulent. Ibid. 89 R. M. Deeley obtained η = 6 × 1012 poises for the viscosity at 0° C. of fine crystalline ice. 1939Nature 6 May (Suppl.) p. i (Advt.), The Goodeve Thixoviscometer... Range 1 centipoise to 1 megapoise (0·01 to 106 poises). 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. iii. 209 The viscosity of water, 0·0114 poise at 15°C., is also very high for a liquid of low molecular weight. 1964Times Sci. Rev. Spring 4/2 As a result of its relatively low viscosity—probably about 103 to 105 poises—..the lava flows freely. 1971Nature 10 Sept. 101/1 Liquefaction implies a reduction in the viscosity of the sediment from that of a plastic solid (say, 104 poise) to that of a thick soupy liquid (say, 10 poise).
▪ III. poise, v.|pɔɪz|
Forms: 5– poise, (5–7 poyse, 6–7 poyze, 6–8 poize).
[late ME. poise (parallel form to peise), repr. OF. poise, from earlier peise, the stem-stressed form of peser = Pr. pessar, pezar, Sp., Pg. pesar, It. pesare:—late pop. L. pēsāre for cl. L. pensāre to weigh, freq. of pendĕre to weigh.
L. pēˈsāre, ˈpēsat, became according to stress, in early OF., peˈser, (il) ˈpeise, later, in Central OF. (il) poise. In mod.F., the oi forms have been levelled under e, il pèse, ils pèsent; but in late OF. the e forms were sometimes levelled under oi, giving poiser, poisant, etc., as still in Picard and Burgundian. Late Anglo-Fr. had in the stem-stressed forms both the Norman peise and the Parisian poise, whence late ME. and early mod.E. had both peise and poise, of which poise has been, since the 17th c., the Standard Eng. form, though peise, paise, pese, are retained dialectally.]
†1. trans. (or intr. with compl.) To have a specified weight, to weigh (so much): = peise v. 6.
1389in Eng. Gilds (1870) 18 He shal haue two candels poysand vj. pounde of wax. 14..Langland's P. Pl. B. v. 217 Þe pounde þat she payed by poised [v.rr. peised, weyed; A, C, peysed, peised] a quarteroun more Than myne owne auncere. 1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 85 Presents of gould, ful weightelye poysing. 1587Harrison England ii. xvi. (1877) i. 282 He had two other..whose shot poised aboue two talents in weight.
†2. trans. To measure or estimate the weight of (by a balance, or by lifting and holding in the hand); to weigh: = peise v. 1, 1 c. Obs.
1593Drayton Ecl. ii. 82 Whereby it doth all poyze and measure. 1686tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 159 The officers Poys'd it, and felt every where. 1695J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 235 The old Romans had this custom of poyzing the money which they paid.
3. fig. To weigh in the mind; to consider, ponder; to estimate, value: = peise v. 2. Now rare.
a1483Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 20 All the intermixtions poysed by wysedom & worshipp. c1495Epitaffe, etc. in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 392 Gewellys..poysyd at grete valoyre. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. viii. (1623) 568 So vneuenly doth some mens judgement poyse. 1636Featly Clavis Myst. xvi. 209 Let us now poize the circumstances which are all weighty. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. xvi, A thousand resolutions..weighed, poised, and perpended. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1877) II. xvi. 276 They would have seen him turn crimson in poising the question.
†4.
a. To add weight to; to weight, load, burden; to weigh down, oppress; to incline or sway as by weight. lit. and fig. (Cf. peise v. 4.) Obs.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 43 The innumerable multitude of those,..whom with the weight of his endlesse wealth, hee poized downe that they durst not then whisper in secret, what now they openly discouer. 1598Chapman Blinde Begger Wks. 1873 I. 39 When such young boyes, Shal have their weake neckes over poisd with crownes. a1677Manton Serm. Ps. cxix. clxxxii. Wks. 1872 IX. 234 When a man is biassed and poised by his heart to a thing. 1711Addison Spect. No. 25 ⁋2 As soon as I find my self duely poised after Dinner, I walk till I have perspired five Ounces and four Scruples.
†b. intr. To press or tend downward by its weight: = peise v. 4 b. Obs.
1615T. Adams Lycanthropy 20 Like the Pinacles on some Battlements that point upward to heaven and poyse downward to their center.
†c. trans. To steady or render stable, as by adding weight; to ballast. Obs.
1642J. M. Argt. conc. Militia A iij, Everyman ought to have his conscience poysed by good grounds and principles, lest that it suffer shipwrack. 1710Steele Tatler No. 181 ⁋1 That Sobriety of Thought which poises the Heart.
d. With equally or evenly: To weight evenly, to cause to have equal weight on both sides; to put in equilibrium, to balance (= 5). Obs. or merged in 5. (Cf. poise n.1 5.)
1635Swan Spec. M. vi. §2 (1643) 194 The earth..is so equally poysed on every side, that it cannot but be firmly upheld. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 71 A Bowl equally poized and thrown upon a smooth Bowling-green. 1769Junius Lett. xviii. (1820) 77 The scales are equally poised.
5. a. To place or keep in equilibrium; to hold supported or suspended; to make even; to balance. lit. and fig.
1639Fuller Holy War iii. vii. (1840) 127 At last he resolved..openly to poise himself indifferent betwixt these two kings. 1667Milton P.L. v. 579 Where Earth now rests Upon her center pois'd. 1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 11 By what Artifice they poise themselves. 1769Robertson Chas. V, xii. III. 396 The balance of power among the Italian States was poized with greater equality. 1880‘Ouida’ Moths I. 36 Her small head was perfectly poised on a slender neck. 1898L. Stephen Stud. Biogr. II. vii. 265 Showing us men poised between the two infinites.
b. To weigh or balance (one thing with or against († by, to) another, or two things against each other); to bring into or hold in mutual equilibrium; to equalize (quot. 1697). Usually fig. Now rare.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. ii. 100 Tut, you saw her faire, none else being by, Herselfe poys'd with herselfe in either eye. 1638Penit. Conf. (1657) 338 Poysing past and future events as two scales in a balance. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 46 Wilt thou bless our Summers with thy Rays, And seated near the Ballance, poise the Days? 1781Cowper Expostulation 342 Who poises and proportions sea and land, Weighing them in the hollow of his hand. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. xi. 237 Again was Cartwright poised against Whitgift.
†c. To be of equal weight with (usually fig.); to balance, counterbalance; to equal, match. Obs.
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. i, 'Twill scarce poize the obseruation else. 1667H. Stubbe in Phil. Trans. II. 498 Two contrary Winds poise each other, and make a Calm in the midst. 1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 426 Thirst of applause calls public judgment in, To poise our own, to keep an even scale.
†d. intr. with against: To counterbalance, compensate. Obs. rare.
a1718Penn Tracts Wks. 1726 I. 700 They have others that will more than Poize against the Growing Power of it.
6. a. trans. To hold or carry in equilibrium; to hold balanced in one's hand, on one's head, etc.; to carry steadily or evenly.
1598Barret Theor. Warres iii. i. 36 Poizing the pike with an equall poize vpon his thombe and shoulder. 1673[R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 55 The 8 elephant supporters not being able to poize it on their heads. 1737[S. Berington] G. di Lucca's Mem. (1738) 32 His Pistol steadily pois'd in his Hand. 1863Barry Dockyard Econ. 238 The largest masses can be lifted, poised, or laid down at any point with the nicest accuracy. 1870W. Chambers Winter. Mentone i. 13 Their favourite mode of carrying things is to poise them on the top of the head.
†b. To cause to sway or swing to and fro like something suspended. Obs.
1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. vi. (1635) 85 The Water..will oftentimes poize it selfe hither and thither, seeking an æquilibration.
†c. To heave, lift. Obs. rare.
1689‘Philopolites’ Grumble. Crew 4 To use their Skill and Care, in weighing and poising up again this same forsaken and sinking Vessel.
d. pass. To be ready for (or to do) something; to be about (to do something).
1932W. Faulkner Light in August (1933) xvii. 381 She looked exactly like a rock poised to plunge over a precipice. 1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 284 The boys who had been poised for the invasion of Japan. 1961National Rev. 30 Dec. 462/3 The Free Chinese know that the situation on the Mainland is in flux, and are poised to strike. 1977A. Thwaite Portion for Foxes 38 A scornful phrase Poised to put down the parasite or bore. 1979Daily Tel. 3 Feb. 1/1 British Petroleum was poised last night to make further reductions in oil deliveries to customers around the world.
7. intr. for refl. To be balanced or held in equilibrium; to hang supported or suspended; to balance itself in the air, to hover. Also, to hover or be poised in readiness for (something).
1847L. Hunt Jar Honey ii. (1848) 20 As of some breathless racers, whose hopes poise Upon the last few steps. 1859All Year Round No. 36. 219 To observe the keen swift kyjiks poise and skim over the Bosphorus. 1878Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 63 A butterfly..Poising in sunshine. 1898C. M. Sheldon His Brother's Keeper iii. 64 The gravity of events that were evidently poising for a crisis left little room for anything but sober feeling.
Hence poised ppl. a., balanced, etc. (in quot. a 1643, weighted, loaded); also, of persons, their behaviour, etc.: composed, self-assured; ˈpoising vbl. n. (also attrib.) and ppl. a., balancing, weighing, hovering, etc. (see senses above).
1545Elyot, Ascalon, an hebrue woorde, signifieth a poysyng, or a balance. a1643W. Cartwright Ordinary ii. iii, Your poyz'd dye That's ballasted with quicksilver or gold Is grosse to this. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 344 The heavier Earth is by her Weight betray'd, The lighter in the poising Hand is weigh'd. c1760Smollett Ode to Indep. 107 Where the poised lark his evening ditty chants. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. ii. 44 When over crags and piny highlands The poising eagle slowly soars. 1873Black Pr. Thule ii, Something almost majestic..in the poising of her head. 1928E. O'Neill Strange Interlude i. 12 His manner is cool and poised. He speaks with a careful ease. 1961J. Mercier Whatever you Do ii. 28 Somehow managing to get out a cool, poised, ‘Won't you hold on a second, please’, I covered up the mouthpiece, [etc.]. 1974E. Ferrers Hanged Man's House v. 45 She was very poised, and had a terrific social manner.
▪ IV. poise, poisee, poisei
obs. ff. poesy. |