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Courage vs Poise - What's the difference?

courage | poise |

As nouns the difference between courage and poise

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

As a verb poise is

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

courage

English

Noun

(-)
  • The quality of a confident character not to be afraid or intimidated easily but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
    • "A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before." —
    It takes a lot of courage to be successful in business.
  • The ability to do things which one finds frightening.
    • "Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it." —
    He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * courageous * discourage * encourage

    Related terms

    * cardiac

    Verb

    (courag)
  • (label) To encourage.
  • *:
  • *:And wete yow wel sayd kynge Arthur vnto Vrres syster I shalle begynne to handle hym and serche vnto my power not presumyng vpon me that I am soo worthy to hele youre sone by my dedes / but I wille courage other men of worshyp to doo as I wylle doo
  • *(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
  • *:Paul writeth unto Timothyto courage him.

    • See also

    * fearlessness * bield English abstract nouns ----

    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.