counterpoise

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English

Etymology

From Old French contrepois, contrepeser, later assimilated to poise.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkaʊntə(ɹ)ˌpɔɪz/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun

counterpoise (plural counterpoises)

  1. A weight sufficient to balance another, for example in the opposite end of scales; an equal weight.
  2. An effect of equal power or force acting in opposition; a force sufficient to balance another force or influence
    • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 200:
      This necessary counterpoise, the affectionate and simple-minded will readily conceive, would arise to Louisa from the absence of those "dear familiar faces" which had hitherto constituted her world.
  3. The relation of two weights or forces which balance each other; equilibrium
    Synonym: equiponderance

Derived terms

Translations

a weight sufficient to balance another — see counterbalance
an equal power or force acting in opposition — see counterbalance
the relation of two weights or forces which balance each other; equilibrium — see counterbalance

Verb

counterpoise (third-person singular simple present counterpoises, present participle counterpoising, simple past and past participle counterpoised)

  1. To act against with equal weight; to equal in weight; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance.
    • 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises:
      Weights, counterpoising one another.
  2. To act against with equal power; to balance.
    • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
      So many freeholders of English […] will be able to beard, and to counterpoise the rest.

Translations

to act against with equal weight; to equal in weight — see counterbalance
to act against with equal power; to balance — see counterbalance
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