All 8 Uses

poise
in
Native Son
(Auto-generated)

O.K. Buddy crouched by the door and held the iron skillet by its handle, his arm flexed and poised.†
Book 1
He was still poised, wondering if she would pull him toward her, or let him fall alone.†
Book 2
He put on the gloves and took up the pencil in a trembling hand and held it poised over the paper.†
Book 2
The silver lightning flashed in his eyes and he knew that the men had taken pictures of him with the cat poised upon his shoulder.†
Book 2 *
He was nervously poised, waiting for what the new flow of events would bring.†
Book 2
His knees were slightly bent, like a runner's poised for a race.†
Book 2
Bigger had the queer feeling that his own exhaustion formed a hair-line upon which his feelings were poised, and that the man's driving frenzy would suck him into its hot whirlpool.†
Book 3
Now, once again, he was waiting for someone to tell him something" once more he was poised on the verge of action and commitment.†
Book 3

Definitions:

(1) (poise)
calm, confident, and in control—especially in movement, behavior, or when ready to act
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much more rarely, poise is a technical word referencing a unit of dynamic viscosity.