What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Poise vs Compose - What's the difference?

poise | compose |

As nouns the difference between poise and compose

is that poise is (obsolete) weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs while compose is compound.

As verbs the difference between poise and compose

is that poise is (obsolete) to hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt while compose is .

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.

    compose

    English

    (Composition)

    Verb

    (compos)
  • To make something by merging parts.
    • The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.
    Try to compose your thoughts.
  • * Bishop Sprat
    • Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.
  • To make up the whole; to constitute.
    • A church is composed of its members.
  • * I. Watts
    • A few useful things compose their intellectual possessions.
  • (nonstandard) To comprise.
  • (transitive, or, intransitive) To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.
    • The orator composed his speech over the week prior.
    Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.
    It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Let me compose / Something in verse as well as prose.
  • * B. R. Haydon
    • the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"
  • (sometimes, reflexive) To calm; to free from agitation.
    • The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.
  • * Dryden
    • Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.
  • To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
  • To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
  • * 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 280:
    • By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision
  • To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.
  • * Dryden
    • In a peaceful grave my corpse compose .
  • * Milton
    • How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.
  • (printing, dated) To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.

    • Derived terms

    * composer * composite * composing stick * composition * compositor * composure * decompose

    Related terms

    * compound