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Weigh vs Poise - What's the difference?

weigh | poise |

As verbs the difference between weigh and poise

is that weigh is to determine the weight of an object while poise is (obsolete) to hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.

As a noun poise is

(obsolete) weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.

weigh

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To determine the weight of an object.
  • Often with "out", to measure a certain amount of something by its weight, e.g. for sale.
    • He weighed out two kilos of oranges for a client.
  • (figuratively) To determine the intrinsic value or merit of an object, to evaluate.
    • You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
  • (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To judge; to estimate.
  • * Spenser
    • could not weigh of worthiness aright
  • To consider a subject. (rfex)
  • To have a certain weight.
    • I weigh ten and a half stone.
  • To have weight; to be heavy; to press down.
  • * Cowper
    • They only weigh the heavier.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart.
  • To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Your vows to her and me will even weigh .
  • * John Locke
    • This objection ought to weigh with those whose reading is designed for much talk and little knowledge.
  • (nautical) To raise an anchor free of the seabed.
  • (nautical) To weigh anchor.
  • * 1624 , , Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 91:
    • Towards the evening we wayed , and approaching the shoare [...], we landed where there lay a many of baskets and much bloud, but saw not a Salvage.
  • *1841 , (Edgar Allan Poe), ‘A Descent into the Maelström’:
  • *:‘Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home.’
  • To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up.
  • * Cowper
    • Weigh the vessel up.
  • (obsolete) To consider as worthy of notice; to regard.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I weigh not you.
  • * Spenser
    • all that she so dear did weigh

    Derived terms

    * weigh down * weigh in/weigh-in * weight * weighty * weigh up * weigh on

    Related terms

    * (l)

    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.