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Composure vs Poise - What's the difference?

composure | poise |

Poise is a synonym of composure.



In obsolete terms the difference between composure and poise

is that composure is a combination; a union; a bond while poise is to add weight to, to weigh down.

As nouns the difference between composure and poise

is that composure is calmness of mind or matter, self-possession while poise is weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.

As a verb poise is

to hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.

composure

English

Noun

  • Calmness of mind or matter, self-possession.
  • * Milton
    • We seek peace and composure .
  • * I. Watts
    • When the passions are all silent, the mind enjoys its most perfect composure .
  • *
    • “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure , in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author= , title=Wales 2-1 Montenegro , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Montenegro's early composure was shaken by that set-back and a visibly buoyed Wales nearly added a second goal when Bale broke past two defenders and fired a long-range shot that Bozovic tipped over}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1798 , author=Giacomo Casanova , title=The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt , chapter=92 citation , passage=He began to lose his composure , and made mistakes, his cards got mixed up, and his scoring was wild.}}
  • (obsolete) The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition.
  • * Evelyn
    • Signor Pietro, who had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.
  • (obsolete) Orderly adjustment; disposition.
  • * Woodward
    • Various composures and combinations of these corpuscles.
  • (obsolete) frame; make; temperament
  • * Shakespeare
    • His composure must be rare indeed / Whom these things can not blemish.
  • (obsolete) A combination; a union; a bond.
    • (Shakespeare)
    (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * (calmness) equanimity * (calmness) See also

    poise

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.xii:
    • as an huge rockie clift, / Whose false foundation waues haue washt away, / With dreadfull poyse is from the mayneland rift, / [...] So downe he fell [...].
  • The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
  • That which causes a balance; a counterweight.
  • * Dryden
    • Men of unbounded imagination often want the poise of judgment.
  • A state of balance, equilibrium or stability
    • (Bentley)
  • composure; freedom from embarrassment or affectation
  • mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body
  • A condition of hovering, or being suspended
  • (physics) A cgs unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimeter.
    • (wikipedia poise)

    Derived terms

    * centipoise

    Verb

    (pois)
  • (obsolete) To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.
  • * Longfellow
    • The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in air.
  • (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality
  • * Dryden
    • to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit
  • (obsolete) To be of a given weight; to weigh.
  • (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down.
  • *, II.2:
    • Every man poiseth upon his fellowes sinne, and elevates his owne.
  • * 1597 , William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet , I.2:
    • you saw her faire none els being by, / Her selfe poysd with her selfe in either eye.
  • To hold (something) in equilibrium, to hold balanced and ready; to carry (something) ready to be used.
    • I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.
    to poise the scales of a balance
  • * Dryden
    • Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised , did on her own foundation lie.
  • To keep (something) in equilibrium; to hold suspended or balanced.
    • The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
  • To ascertain, as if by balancing; to weigh.
  • * South
    • He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.