Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not poised; not balanced.
  • Unweighed; unhesitating; regardless of consequences.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not poised or balanced.
  • adjective obsolete Not poised or weighed; hence, regardless of consequences; unhesitating.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not poised; lacking poise.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ poised

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Examples

  • Sting seemed a little unpoised, so it's likely he wasn't sure what he was recording this song for.

    Bruno - What Did You Think? | /Film 2009

  • The privilege and responsibility of being the lode star of an unresisting, unpoised life is tremendous, for this influence overpowers all others at the time.

    The Unfolding Life A Study of Development with Reference to Religious Training Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux

  • Hope persuaded him that Margaret was only a girl, still sentimental and unpoised.

    The Day of the Beast Zane Grey 1905

  • If I may judge others by myself, the mere fact of being unpoised, unresting, disables the mind from a thousand things that are joyfully relished by one entirely at ease.

    Queechy 1854

  • "But the butterfly, seeking a safe resting place, flutters with unpoised flight, past the false poppy which flaunts its gay colours on the sight."

    Say and Seal, Volume II Susan Warner 1852

  • In him who cultivates only the reason, and suffers the heart and the spirit to lie waste and dead, who schemes and constructs, and revolves round the axle of self, unwarmed by the affections, unpoised by the attraction of right, lies the germ Fate might ripen into the guilt of Olivier Dalibard.

    Lucretia — Volume 06 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • In him who cultivates only the reason, and suffers the heart and the spirit to lie waste and dead, who schemes and constructs, and revolves round the axle of self, unwarmed by the affections, unpoised by the attraction of right, lies the germ Fate might ripen into the guilt of Olivier Dalibard.

    Lucretia — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • If Canada had defeated Team USA -- if Ryan Miller wasn't so good and Martin Brodeur so uncharacteristically unpoised playing the puck -- the host country would have had a two-step road to the Final.

    FanHouse Main Christopher Botta 2010

  • If Canada had defeated Team USA -- if Ryan Miller wasn't so good and Martin Brodeur so uncharacteristically unpoised playing the puck -- the host country would have had a two-step road to the Final.

    FanHouse Main Christopher Botta 2010

  • Despite this, Angelina should have won the evening gown competition as Taylor seemed absolutely uncomfortable and unpoised in her dress.

    PWTorch.com 2008

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