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poise
in a sentence

show 187 more with this conextual meaning
  • Her small hands were clasped to her chest and she was poised on her toes as if music were about to start.   (source)
    poised = balanced and ready for action
  • At regular intervals along this channel were guards, looking around anxiously and poised to strike at the first hint of danger.   (source)
    poised = prepared (ready)
  • She was poised for running, as though she were going to sprint off, immediately, to wherever her father was.   (source)
  • This practice allegedly overcame a variety of evils: standing in front of his fellows encouraged good posture and gave a child poise; delivering a short talk made him word-conscious; learning his current event strengthened his memory; being singled out made him more than ever anxious to return to the Group.   (source)
    poise = composure or grace
  • He looked vaguely up, studied the straddling, at-bay figure of Brinker at the core of the poised perimeter of boys, hesitated, blinked, and then in his organ voice said good-naturedly, "Next?"   (source)
    poised = ready for action
  • The double disappeared and The Cat went at Dodge with his front paws poised to strike.   (source)
    poised = prepared (ready)
  • The great rock loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return, moved through the air, fell, struck, turned over, leapt droning through the air and smashed a deep hole in the canopy of the forest.   (source)
    poised = balanced
  • But the young body carried a sense of command, a poised assurance,   (source)
    poised = coolness and composure
  • There, on the biggest stage, a tattoo needle poised like a blowgun dart in his rose-crusted hand, stood Mr Dark, the Illustrated Man.   (source)
    poised = relaxed and ready for action
  • He was poised as if to begin running.   (source)
    poised = ready and prepared
  • When Blore came up alone I had the big marble clock poised ready.   (source)
    poised = ready to move as needed
  • At eight hundred feet Henry slowed down the helicopter screws, and they hung for a minute or two poised above the fading landscape.   (source)
    poised = suspended
  • Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it   (source)
    poise = remaining calm and in control
  • I thought that the Professor was going to break down and have hysterics, just as he had when Lucy died, but with a great effort he controlled himself and was at perfect nervous poise when Mrs. Harker tripped into the room, bright and happy looking and, in the doing of work, seemingly forgetful of her misery.   (source)
    poise = composure
  • Blue smoke curled from a cigarette poised in glittering fingertips.†   (source)
  • Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.†   (source)
  • I stood poised for departure, on the steps (what steps?†   (source)
  • But what struck her most was the poised stillness of their bodies, and especially their gaze, fixed on her and unwavering.†   (source)
  • I hold up the piece of paper, poised to rip it in half, but Peter grabs it from me.†   (source)
  • Her right thumb was poised over the detonator.†   (source)
  • ?" the Bishop suggested, his pencil poised over his pad.†   (source)
  • "Alicia, are you pregnant?" she asked, still standing with a cake knife poised in the air.†   (source)
  • I cracked my knuckles and grabbed the Player Two joystick with my left hand, poising my right hand over the Flap button.†   (source)
  • And now we are poised to carry out Saunière's legacy and right a terrible wrong.†   (source)
  • She had frozen in midcrawl, her weight all poised on one knee and one muddy hand.†   (source)
  • He is not a maniac anymore; he is perfectly controlled, perfectly poised.†   (source)
  • He licked the point of his pencil and poised it over a blank sheet of paper.†   (source)
  • I could see them, mugs poised in their hands, the only two people facing away from the theater next door.†   (source)
  • Every touchable surface was a disease waiting to happen, every speck of dust an allergen poised to swell your nose and clog your ducts, every toothbrush bristle a bacterial playground.†   (source)
  • Kennington's Dept. Str. seeks salesgirls w/poise, manners & a smile!†   (source)
  • Poised over her kill, the tyrannosaur became suddenly hesitant.†   (source)
  • The soldiers sat forward, poised to laugh.†   (source)
  • When Owen caught her eye, she appeared to lose her confidence and her poise; the look he gave her was both challenging and lascivious.†   (source)
  • Marie-Laure can feel them all poised there.†   (source)
  • When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke? the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart.†   (source)
  • There were posters of Chairman Mao's poems written in his own calligraphy, and a new poster of a group of Red Guards in belted army uniforms poised to march forward, waiting only for the Great Leader's order.†   (source)
  • A third tumbler containing pieces of soft fruit stood poised at the end of the diving board.†   (source)
  • --Open the watermelon--he said, poising a large knife over the perfect fruit.†   (source)
  • Her voice hums with authority and poise.†   (source)
  • She seems poised to sit down without addressing these questions, but then changes her mind.†   (source)
  • Everyone looked poised, for just a moment, to float away.†   (source)
  • I was poised to run, but before the bartender could even get out from behind the bar Emma had upended the drink he'd poured her, spilling brown liquor everywhere.†   (source)
  • He stares straight at the lens, the knife in his hand, poised, for the camera's benefit, over the cake, his face shining with impending adolescence.†   (source)
  • * On the set of 1 vs. 100, Langan was poised and confident.†   (source)
  • No ordinary clasp would suffice for such a weight, so the greatcloak was held in place by a matched pair of miniature lionesses crouching on his shoulders, as if poised to spring.†   (source)
  • The whites of my eyes are still red, I have a two-inch scratch down my cheek, and my body is poised for attack.†   (source)
  • The snowshoes held him lightly; he stood poised on the snow like a duck on water.†   (source)
  • Her whole body was shaking, but for the confident arm holding the gun poised to kill her.†   (source)
  • I've got a thousand glaciers poised and ready to roll over Africa!"†   (source)
  • Ender stood poised to fight, but the other's immobility made it impossible for Ender to attack.†   (source)
  • She curtsied again with incredible poise, considering her life was on the line.†   (source)
  • All the furniture seemed spindly, poised at a tiptoe nervousness.†   (source)
  • Her mother, hands still poised over the keys of the typewriter, stared at Flora with her mouth open.†   (source)
  • He did not seem at all disappointed when the shadow escaped him but turned and waited eagerly for the next, poised like a goalkeeper.†   (source)
  • The window ran nearly the length of the sitting room, and beyond it the sun was poised directly between two sawtoothed peaks, casting golden light across the rock faces and the sugared snow on the high tips.†   (source)
  • I knew that somewhere out there Mother was poised, ready to snatch me away.†   (source)
  • The image of her, alert and poised in the prison cell, was still vivid in his mind.†   (source)
  • Mommy stood poised over that option like a hawk.†   (source)
  • We're poised on the border with everything we might need for an eventual destiny assembled around us.†   (source)
  • It was poised and proud and alert, wings spread.†   (source)
  • He crouches, poised to leap at me.†   (source)
  • Above it all, just out of sight as if poised in twisted space, hung the gigantic weights of the AIs, their simplest communications pulsing like violent heat lightning along the infinite horizons.†   (source)
  • But perched up there on this Afghan rock face, poised to fend off an attacking army, I thought they were only just shy of grade-one hilarity.†   (source)
  • His excellent manners, educated voice, and physical poise marked him as a gentleman.†   (source)
  • He was young but poised and had a knack for making her feel good even when she was inclined to feel otherwise.†   (source)
  • Soon the biggest of the boys poised himself, shot down into the water, and did not come up.†   (source)
  • "I can't believe how poised you were," Francis said, and he kissed her—a dry, professional kiss on the lips.†   (source)
  • Nothing but a few newspapers rolling in the wind, a rubbish barrel and a cat with arched back poised next to the barrel.†   (source)
  • The click had clicked; things were where they ought to be or poised and ready to glide in.†   (source)
  • The back leg was poised as if it was about to leave its toehold and push ahead, and the way of it, the whole way of it, said that the head and back wouldn't be moving at all—just those legs.†   (source)
  • She had poise and great dignity.†   (source)
  • And right now, he has about a million of these people poised off the California coast.†   (source)
  • My bow is poised over the strings now.†   (source)
  • On the inside of his other arm, a spider poised near a Mexican girl in a sombrero, caught in a web.†   (source)
  • My heart hammered in my throat, my voice shaky, as if a vibrator were poised on my Adam's apple.†   (source)
  • Bella stood frozen, poised to run if the clerk picked up the phone to call the police.†   (source)
  • Legwarmers lend a note of paramilitary poise, a hint of archaic warriorhood.†   (source)
  • Mammachi stopped playing and looked in Chacko's direction, the bow poised in midair.†   (source)
  • The skeletal bear had risen from the ground behind him, paws poised to strike.†   (source)
  • Isabelle froze, her spoon poised dangerously.†   (source)
  • A little while ago he had heard, from a reliable source, that this time the forthcoming resettlement of the ghetto was unavoidable: the German extermination commando was already poised for action on the other side of the wall, ready to begin operations.†   (source)
  • He would be coming down the right side and move a half-step faster or a half-step slower and you would think, or drop a hand, or move a knee, and then Ice would be in the air, the ball poised on his fingertips, the wrist bent back, and whatever you did would be too late.†   (source)
  • I get to the front door, my hand poised above the handle, then I stop.†   (source)
  • I watch and wait, determined that the girl my Match will see on the screen in his City Hall somewhere out there in Society will be poised and calm and lovely, the very best image of Cassia Maria Reyes that I can present.†   (source)
  • Say that she was poised and graceful.†   (source)
  • Flo's boy had character and poise, and he easily fell under the spell of the music his mother played on an old RCA radio.†   (source)
  • He was intensely focused on the street and appeared poised to lunge.†   (source)
  • He made his way to where Mrs. Eleanor Dokes sat poised over her stenograph.†   (source)
  • But as I poised, uneasy, with a dry throat, the smooth white path from my feet to his feet grew blurred.†   (source)
  • …intermittent optimism that refused entirely to die in Marin, perhaps because Marin was less violent than most of the places its residents had fled, or because of the view, its position on the edge of a continent, overlooking the world's widest ocean, or because of the mix of its people, or its proximity to that realm of giddy technology that stretched down the bay like a bent thumb, ever poised to meet the curved finger of Marin in a slightly squashed gesture that all would be okay.†   (source)
  • Then he lowered himself until his body was poised just above mine.†   (source)
  • I ask, pencil poised to write.†   (source)
  • Oh no." With this, Felix dipped the scalpel toward Dan's head until it was poised just above his eye.†   (source)
  • Though she tried to remain poised, her voice began to crack as she went on.†   (source)
  • I asked, pencil poised to write.†   (source)
  • His poise, his explicitness, the assured presentation of verifiable detail impressed Nye-though, of course, the boy was lying.†   (source)
  • He thought about what he wished he could say to her, if he had the guts, and poised his hands over the keyboard.†   (source)
  • Usually it came to no more than this: a deployment of troops, twenty-seven soldiers leaning, twenty-seven tiny olive-green rifles aiming, poised on the brink of battle.†   (source)
  • Turning quickly, I catch miama dousing us all, a bucket poised in her fist above us while she's wearing her work uniform.†   (source)
  • Eric stood up, looking out over the sea, almost poised to run.†   (source)
  • He sat up quickly, pulled the book out from under him, put on a green eve-shade, and waited with his pen poised in the air.†   (source)
  • She picked her brush back up and held it poised in front of the mirror.†   (source)
  • Walter waits, hankie poised.†   (source)
  • She nails him with his mop poised over the bucket, freezes him there.†   (source)
  • She was poised to shoot, her heels lifting off the asphalt.†   (source)
  • "But do you think it would attack us?" asked Hazel, watching it drop lower and recommence its poised fluttering.†   (source)
  • In one corner Mami kept an altar with candles and a cigar in a stone mortar and a glass of water and two toy soldiers we could not touch ever and above the bed hung our mosquito netting, poised to drop on us like a net.†   (source)
  • When she raised the goblet and began walking around the circle I felt her words, and even though she didn't have the poise and power of Neferet what she said ignited within me, like I was burning from the inside out.†   (source)
  • Much like how he seemed poised to take care of us now.†   (source)
  • So I sat down, my fingers poised over the keyboard.†   (source)
  • She sought vainly for the poise and composure which were her natural birthright in most of the situations of life.†   (source)
  • Petra Cotes, without losing her poise of a wild beast in repose for a single instant, heard the music and the fireworks from the wedding, the wild bustle of the celebration as if all of it were nothing but some new piece of mischief on the part of Aureliano Segundo.†   (source)
  • Garrett remained poised for attack.†   (source)
  • Jones moved the phones off one ear, his hand poised to slap the other off.†   (source)
  • (pencil poised) WILLIE.†   (source)
  • Pollard, up in the saddle, was a lion poised for the kill.†   (source)
  • However, Hussein seemed poised to invade Saudi Arabia next.†   (source)
  • She's got the stick poised, ready to run him through.†   (source)
  • Its one revealed eye looked menacing, the large beak poised ready to strike.†   (source)
  • At the reception Janice was impressed by Adam's poise when he graciously deflected any focus that came his way from relatives and friends aware of his recovery and sobriety.†   (source)
  • Sitting cross-legged on a rough striped wool carpet next to her distinguished father, Shakeela, poised and pretty at fifteen, smiles confidently out from under a cream-colored shawl festooned with falling leaves as she speaks.†   (source)
  • In the tense silence as first light broke, Easy Company lay poised for action on the 2nd Battalion's right flank.†   (source)
  • She was poising in her hand the iron bar that she had torn off the lamp-post, ready to throw it.†   (source)
  • At the moment the postman rang the bell, Litvinoff's pen had been poised above a blank piece of paper, his eyes watery with revelation, filled with the feeling that he was on the verge of understanding the essence of something.†   (source)
  • Right at the Balrog's feet it broke, and the stone upon which it stood crashed into the gulf, while the rest remained, poised, quivering like a tongue of rock thrust out into emptiness.†   (source)
  • She sits like a bird poised for flight.†   (source)
  • Nicholas Jenks was stunned, the knife poised over his left shoulder.†   (source)
  • Lestat was poised to jump whoever should open it.†   (source)
  • In a corner of his brain he had just enough sanity left to realize that he was poised on the edge of a bottomless pit.†   (source)
  • He had never witnessed such heroic poise before.†   (source)
  • With one section poised before his mouth, he resumed.†   (source)
  • Ridley was leaning against the wall, her lollipop poised and ready.†   (source)
  • Cedric clears his throat, recovering a modicum of poise.†   (source)
  • Poised on his tongue was a blatant lie.†   (source)
  • I pulled it out and paused with my thumb poised over the keypad.†   (source)
  • Flustered, I plunk my briefcase on the floor, transfer the laptop to the other side—nearly dropping the FT as I do so—and, with as much poise as possible, hold out my hand.†   (source)
  • Deepak, pen poised, had yet to write a word.†   (source)
  • Monique delivered it with all the poise of an experienced politician.†   (source)
  • The answer was accepted and amplified by Rav Gershenson, thereby forestalling Danny's poised hand.†   (source)
  • The press waited with pens, poised for Cesar to translate.†   (source)
  • And molecules fight categorization--they are poised along several polarities.†   (source)
  • She seized my arm and we were poised face to face in the middle of the walk.†   (source)
  • Until nine o'clock the battle seemed to be unfolding about as the Americans had expected, with the enemy attacking, or poised to attack, head-on.†   (source)
  • Then she caught a movement that had her tensed muscles rippling, her trigger finger poised.†   (source)
  • "Who are they?" asked Webb quietly, his glass poised in front of him.†   (source)
  • Salander tensed her muscles, poised for instant flight if she were discovered.†   (source)
  • "Is it true?" he yelled, his knuckles bunched tight and poised a box e her.†   (source)
  • A shortorder cook was poised behind the flat top.†   (source)
  • He knew she was sitting over there like a timid starling, poised for flight.†   (source)
  • I loved her tall slim shape, the poise of her neck, her small, pointed breasts, her long, slim legs: and the way she moved, and the sureness of her hands, and her lips when she smiled.†   (source)
  • He remained still, poised between steps, when the knocks sounded again.†   (source)
  • Her beauty, poise, grace, and glamour are unmatchable.†   (source)
  • Its mouth opens as it nears, poised to give me its deadly kiss.†   (source)
  • The line of her shoulders looked taut, yet thrown back easily, as if poised for flight.†   (source)
  • The batter poised for the pitch, and Bryan poised for the next shot.†   (source)
  • Then, with his pencil poised over the form, Grandpa looked up over his reading glasses and asked, "Son, why ain't you said nothin' bout this up to now?"†   (source)
  • PLENTY OF PERSONALITY AND POISE†   (source)
  • When praising the nation or the nobility of the founding fathers' vision, we had known him to break down almost completely, not to weep of course, but to falter, his voice breaking, his emotions poised unsteadily in a miraculous duet between virility and tears.†   (source)
  • I Let Out All My Breath Concentrate on sinking deeper and deeper and… oh, but what's poised below?†   (source)
  • I was a successful mortgage broker, married, seemingly poised at the sweet prime of my life.†   (source)
  • She had been about to leave the room, and her hands were poised on the aprons bow, but her brother's excitement made her refrain from pulling it apart.†   (source)
  • Doodle stopped eating, with a piece of bread poised ready for his mouth, his eyes popped round like two blue buttons.†   (source)
  • "They shouldn't have," he answered her, oh so casual, thereby relieving the listeners of shock and embarrassment while exhibiting his poise, his Sense of Humor, see folks?†   (source)
  • "Is it on account of ballet that you're wearing your hair so tight?" he asked, and Elise said, "Yes, Madame O'Leary requires it," and sat up taller—a reed-thin, ostentatiously poised child—and touched the little doughnut on the tippy-top of her head.†   (source)
  • He nodded in the direction of the wolf, who stood poised, ready, bristling with barely contained energy.†   (source)
  • He saw the dragon poised to breath again.†   (source)
  • He sat motionless, pencil poised, staring at the blank paper.†   (source)
  • "Yes," she nodded, her poised needle threaded in violet.†   (source)
  • They sit so poised and imperturbable while she points out the excellence of Miss Helene's coiffure, achieved without a looking-glass.†   (source)
  • Angeline watched them for a second or two, poised and lovely, then leaped over the rim and down to the valley floor, where she was mobbed.†   (source)
  • But when eleven came he was still poised, waiting — holding his breath when she did, letting it go as she let hers.†   (source)
  • The menu was in French and the poised waiters wore tuxedoes.†   (source)
  • Now the boys had seen enough of the world to sense the size of the battle ahead, and they were like Jim the first night Mark had met him—quiet, poised, and proud.†   (source)
  • He stood poised, ready to strike the other, his eyes narrowed to slits of hatred.†   (source)
  • She opens her mouth, poises her tongue for speech ("Darling!" she is trying to say), cannot utter the word.†   (source)
  • On an impulse I pressed down the lever of the cattle caller and a bellow came out like that of a Miura bull as he poises before firing himself at the butterfly sweep of his first veronica.†   (source)
  • At any given moment, some of them may be way below the firing threshold while others are in a condition Sir John Eccles once referred to as 'critically poised', ready to fire.†   (source)
  • Peter followed him; and soon the boys and their stones were poised on the edge of the rock that jutted out, like a diving-board, over the water.†   (source)
  • BANNISTER turns toward the JUDGE, poised.†   (source)
  • What a fun-loving fellow he was, how poised, how manly.†   (source)
  • The cobras hung poised, on target.†   (source)
  • She was poised on the end of the diving board now, a position that allowed her to exhibit every aspect of her figure to best advantage.†   (source)
  • Back in their apartment on the hill she regained a little of her poise; here were the familiar things she was accustomed to, the cleanness that was her pride, the carefully tended little garden, the clean wide view out over the bay.†   (source)
  • I stopped and my senses poised themselves on the brink of insensibility, ready to swoop away at the merest nod from me.†   (source)
  • She poised there.†   (source)
  • She arose with magnificent poise.†   (source)
  • Like locusts they came, hung poised, descended all around him on the heather.   (source)
    poised = suspended
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