dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

poise
in a sentence

show 187 more with this conextual meaning
  • Ender stood poised to fight, but the other's immobility made it impossible for Ender to attack.   (source)
    poised = ready (prepared for action)
  • Mama looked at Papa, her lips still poised to speak.   (source)
    poised = prepared (ready to do something)
  • He grasped the bars of the window firmly, ready to pull, and stood poised. ... Then—a flash of lightning and, soon after, a crack of thunder. In the midst of the noise, Miles gave a mighty heave.   (source)
  • 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 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
  • The double disappeared and The Cat went at Dodge with his front paws poised to strike.   (source)
    poised = prepared (ready)
  • 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
  • The child she had learned to love had vanished somehow and here was this tall, serious-eyed girl of fifteen, with the thoughtful brows and the proudly poised little head, in her place.   (source)
    poised = relaxed and self-assured
  • 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
  • I cracked my knuckles and grabbed the Player Two joystick with my left hand, poising my right hand over the Flap button.†   (source)
  • Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.†   (source)
  • Blue smoke curled from a cigarette poised in glittering fingertips.†   (source)
  • She too is walking through this dust or smoke; she's poised to open her arms, to be lifted up by him into the air.†   (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)
  • Even that little game of her own invention, which she had grown so fond of playing, was founded on a quality of poise that was beyond her years.†   (source)
  • "Alicia, are you pregnant?" she asked, still standing with a cake knife poised in the air.†   (source)
  • In an instant, I see his finger poised over the trigger and hear the bullet slide into the chamber, and I fire.†   (source)
  • I could see them, mugs poised in their hands, the only two people facing away from the theater next door.†   (source)
  • And yet she had to wonder, as she lay on the floor, her sweaty hands poised to guide the spoke, if indeed she could ever love Rasheed's child as she had Tariq's.†   (source)
  • The delicate art of cajoler was a lost skill in modern law enforcement, one that required exceptional poise under pressure.†   (source)
  • She had frozen in midcrawl, her weight all poised on one knee and one muddy hand.†   (source)
  • But God is only a white cold eye, a quarter-moon poised above the smoke, blinking, blinking, as the city is gradually pounded to dust.†   (source)
  • For a moment he waited there, poised, and kissed her—he took her lower lip between his lips and gently held it there.†   (source)
  • "I can't believe how poised you were," Francis said, and he kissed her—a dry, professional kiss on the lips.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • seeks salesgirls w/poise, manners & a smile!†   (source)
  • What would she have said to the prince's bargain, had she known she would come to stand poised to lose so much?†   (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)
  • 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)
  • Her voice hums with authority and poise.†   (source)
  • Sometimes she would start to make dinner, but would stop halfway, the water running full steam in the sink, her knife poised in the air over half-chopped vegetables, silent, tears flowing.†   (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)
  • It was poised and proud and alert, wings spread.†   (source)
  • She curtsied again with incredible poise, considering her life was on the line.†   (source)
  • But she knew that even if the knives were not poised above her optic nerve, she would attend to her nephews only out of duty.†   (source)
  • Her mother, hands still poised over the keys of the typewriter, stared at Flora with her mouth open.†   (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)
  • Everyone looked poised, for just a moment, to float away.†   (source)
  • The queen held a poised smile, but Kai's expression was as unfeeling as stone as they waltzed across the marble floor.†   (source)
  • In the country that she came from, poised forever between the terror of war and the horror of peace, Worse Things kept happening.†   (source)
  • I've got a thousand glaciers poised and ready to roll over Africa!†   (source)
  • The snowshoes held him lightly; he stood poised on the snow like a duck on water.†   (source)
  • All the furniture seemed spindly, poised at a tiptoe nervousness.†   (source)
  • * On the set of 1 vs. 100, Langan was poised and confident.†   (source)
  • I knew that somewhere out there Mother was poised, ready to snatch me away.†   (source)
  • I picture my hand stroking Teddy's hair, grasping a bow poised above my cello, interlaced with Adam's.†   (source)
  • He holds the bat as a baseball player would, both white-knuckled hands at the thin base poised to swing.†   (source)
  • The image of her, alert and poised in the prison cell, was still vivid in his mind.†   (source)
  • She had poise and great dignity.†   (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)
  • All my school life until then had been poised against me: telling me what to be, what to say, how to say it.†   (source)
  • The click had clicked; things were where they ought to be or poised and ready to glide in.†   (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)
  • He was intensely focused on the street and appeared poised to lunge.†   (source)
  • Cob swiveled his stool around and peered at where Chronicler sat next to Bast, pen still poised over his paper.†   (source)
  • The largest was a flat lacquer dish with two grilled, salted ayu poised on their bellies as though they were swimming down the river together.†   (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)
  • It was as if the three fates were approaching, their scissors poised to snip the knot that was keeping Dede's life from falling apart.†   (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)
  • Mommy stood poised over that option like a hawk.†   (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)
  • The skeletal bear had risen from the ground behind him, paws poised to strike.†   (source)
  • Ridley was leaning against the wall, her lollipop poised and ready.†   (source)
  • He was young but poised and had a knack for making her feel good even when she was inclined to feel otherwise.†   (source)
  • However, Hussein seemed poised to invade Saudi Arabia next.†   (source)
  • We're poised on the border with everything we might need for an eventual destiny assembled around us.†   (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)
  • But there was nonetheless a spirit of at least 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)
  • A great loathsome brown rat he held, its feet poised, its mouth agape, its great curved tail frozen in the air.†   (source)
  • An empty street, a single lamppost casting a yellow pool of illumination, a shadowy figure poised at the edge of the light.†   (source)
  • I get to the front door, my hand poised above the handle, then I stop.†   (source)
  • The machinist's mate's left hand worked the directional propeller controls; his right was poised in the waldo glove.†   (source)
  • The Deiverator took out his gun, centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger, fired it.†   (source)
  • Garrett remained poised for attack.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • But as I poised, uneasy, with a dry throat, the smooth white path from my feet to his feet grew blurred.†   (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)
  • Bella stood frozen, poised to run if the clerk picked up the phone to call the police.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • My heart hammered in my throat, my voice shaky, as if a vibrator were poised on my Adam's apple.†   (source)
  • She picked her brush back up and held it poised in front of the mirror.†   (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)
  • I asked, pencil poised to write.†   (source)
  • She seems poised to sit down without addressing these questions, but then changes her mind.†   (source)
  • Dan's last thought before he fell was of her, of how pretty she looked just then, poised as if dancing, her lips parted and her dark braid coming undone.†   (source)
  • She was poised to shoot, her heels lifting off the asphalt.†   (source)
  • Much like how he seemed poised to take care of us now.†   (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)
  • He saw them nose toward each other, poise motionless, make a dart forward, swerve off, and come around again.†   (source)
  • Because we were seated on the bed, Murray had to lean well forward, looking past the coffee cup poised in my hand, in order to address Babette.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • From far away, he saw a barstool poised above Vivaldo's head, and he heard Jane screaming, keening like all of Ireland.†   (source)
  • My hand is poised at the round wooden knob carved into the ornate drawer, my fingers feeling around the smooth curves.†   (source)
  • Neferet, as usual, looked perfectly poised, perfectly groomed, perfectly in control.†   (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)
  • Once she saw a black mountain of a wave, several stories high, and the Calangute looked poised to fall into a hole.†   (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)
  • Her celluloid poise clashed loudly against her mother's quiet dignity, and she quickly uncrossed her legs.†   (source)
  • His poise, his explicitness, the assured presentation of verifiable detail impressed Nye-though, of course, the boy was lying.†   (source)
  • Like the night before, when I'd been poised with Roscoe at the top of the walk, my first instinct was to go back inside.†   (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)
  • Cedric opens his notebook, pulls out a blank sheet of paper, and poises his pen as Professor Wooten describes what will transpire over the next fifteen weeks.†   (source)
  • Jo was on her front porch, the hammer poised for another whack, when she spotted Katie.†   (source)
  • She sought vainly for the poise and composure which were her natural birthright in most of the situations of life.†   (source)
  • She nails him with his mop poised over the bucket, freezes him there.†   (source)
  • (pencil poised) WILLIE†   (source)
  • Walter waits, hankie poised.†   (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)
  • 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 colonel lifted the box of matches, took one out and held it poised against the striking surface, watching with glowering eyes for the chaplain's next sign of defiance.†   (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)
  • He remained still, poised between steps, when the knocks sounded again.†   (source)
  • She's got the stick poised, ready to run him through.†   (source)
  • Nicholas Jenks was stunned, the knife poised over his left shoulder.†   (source)
  • She was poising in her hand the iron bar that she had torn off the lamp-post, ready to throw it.†   (source)
  • They sit so poised and imperturbable while she points out the excellence of Miss Helene's coiffure, achieved without a looking-glass.†   (source)
  • Salander tensed her muscles, poised for instant flight if she were discovered.†   (source)
  • When Air Force One touched down at Orly Airport, she was hailed as the very picture of glamour, poise, and beauty.†   (source)
  • Its mouth opens as it nears, poised to give me its deadly kiss.†   (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)
  • I pulled it out and paused with my thumb poised over the keypad.†   (source)
  • "But do you think it would attack us?" asked Hazel, watching it drop lower and recommence its poised fluttering.†   (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 true?" he yelled, his knuckles bunched tight and poised a box e her.†   (source)
  • Then she caught a movement that had her tensed muscles rippling, her trigger finger poised.†   (source)
  • Monique delivered it with all the poise of an experienced politician.†   (source)
  • In the tense silence as first light broke, Easy Company lay poised for action on the 2nd Battalion's right flank.†   (source)
  • Looking back, Vlad could almost forget the horror of that moment when he realized he'd been poised to snack on the girl of his dreams.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • She seized my arm and we were poised face to face in the middle of the walk.†   (source)
  • There was a burst of laughter from above; he pressed his back against the wall, gun poised.†   (source)
  • The hands that had been poised to push him away grabbed his shoulders until the fingers dug into his flesh.†   (source)
  • The press waited with pens, poised for Cesar to translate.†   (source)
  • Pollard, up in the saddle, was a lion poised for the kill.†   (source)
  • I Let Out All My Breath Concentrate on sinking deeper and deeper and...oh, but what's poised below?†   (source)
  • A shortorder cook was poised behind the flat top.†   (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)
  • Lillian's head was poised to bow in greeting, with the tentative hint of a smile on her lips, half-timid, half-brash.†   (source)
  • With one section poised before his mouth, he resumed.†   (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)
  • JAN. 10—The annual Posture Queen award at Barnard College was given yesterday to Miss Marjory Schulhoff of Pelham, N.Y. Freshmen were judged on the basis of carriage, poise and ease of movement, both walking and sitting.†   (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 nodded in the direction of the wolf, who stood poised, ready, bristling with barely contained energy.†   (source)
  • Then they waited, silently poised to strike the first lethal blows in Akar Kessell's glorious assault on Ten-Towns.†   (source)
  • And molecules fight categorization—they are poised along several polarities.†   (source)
  • Its one revealed eye looked menacing, the large beak poised ready to strike.†   (source)
  • The answer was accepted and amplified by Rav Gershenson, thereby forestalling Danny's poised hand.†   (source)
  • I see his posture as somehow broken, there's not his familiar pliancy and spring at a public appearance, his steely poise among the crowds, the drive pooled up in his fists, the huge voice, the miracle forcefulness.†   (source)
  • But when eleven came he was still poised, waiting — holding his breath when she did, letting it go as she let hers.†   (source)
  • "Yes," she nodded, her poised needle threaded in violet.†   (source)
  • A Reb came over a rock, bayonet fixed, black thin point forward and poised, face seemed blinded, head twitched.†   (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)
  • I stopped and my senses poised themselves on the brink of insensibility, ready to swoop away at the merest nod from me.†   (source)
  • The menu was in French and the poised waiters wore tuxedoes.†   (source)
  • Doodle stopped eating, with a piece of bread poised ready for his mouth, his eyes popped round like two blue buttons.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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 held daggers in her hands; and poised in mid-step she stood, as though deciding whether to dance before or slay those who came to her shrine.†   (source)
  • She opens her mouth, poises her tongue for speech ("Darling!" she is trying to say), cannot utter the word.†   (source)
  • BANNISTER turns toward the JUDGE, poised.†   (source)
  • He sat tense as a tiger poised to spring, every nerve alert—though he was tired, yes, that was true.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • Sometimes Virgie whirled around with a fig ice cream cone in each hand, held poised like daggers.†   (source)
  • His hands, the keys of a multiflex typewriter, poised over a roll of tape, ready to hammer out logic.†   (source)
  • Like locusts they came, hung poised, descended all around him on the heather.   (source)
    poised = suspended
  • Curley was balanced and poised.   (source)
    poised = ready to move as needed
▲ show less (of above)