Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A counterbalancing weight.
- noun A force or influence that balances or equally counteracts another.
- noun The state of being in equilibrium.
- transitive verb To oppose with an equal weight; counterbalance.
- transitive verb To act against with an equal force or power; offset.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To act in opposition to, or counteract, as a counterpoise; counterbalance; be equiponderant to; equal in weight.
- Hence To act against in any manner with equal power or effect; balance; restore the balance to.
- noun A weight equal to and balancing or counteracting another weight; specifically, a body or mass of the same weight with another opposed to it, as in the opposite scale of a balance.
- noun Hence Any equal power or force acting in opposition; a force sufficient to balance another force.
- noun The state of being in equilibrium with another weight or force.
- noun In the manège, a position of the rider in which his body is duly balanced in his seat, not inclined more to one side than the other; equilibrium.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To act against with equal weight; to equal in weight; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance.
- transitive verb To act against with equal power; to balance.
- noun A weight sufficient to balance another, as in the opposite scale of a balance; an equal weight.
- noun An equal power or force acting in opposition; a force sufficient to balance another force.
- noun The relation of two weights or forces which balance each other; equilibrium; equiponderance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A weight sufficient to
balance another, as in the opposite scale of abalance ; an equal weight. - noun An
equal power or force acting inopposition ; a force sufficient tobalance another force. - noun The
relation of two weights or forces which balance each other;equilibrium ;equiponderance . - verb To act against with equal weight; to equal in weight; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance.
- verb To act against with equal power; to balance.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a weight that balances another weight
- verb constitute a counterweight or counterbalance to
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He wandered about the glen and the hillside, but she took care never to fall in his way, the excitement of eluding him making a kind of counterpoise for the absence of the excitement there used to be in meeting him.
Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891
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Hooking the RV or the chain link fence to the "counterpoise" probably doesn't do much to improve efficiency and should not be looked at as a substitute for a radial system.
eHam.net News 2009
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To amuse himself with the little creations of his own fancy, amid the toil and fatigue of a laborious life; to transcribe the various feelings -- the loves, the griefs, the hopes, the fears -- in his own breast; to find some kind of counterpoise to the struggles of a world, always an alien scene, a task uncouth to the poetical mind -- these were his motives for courting the Muses, and in these he found poetry to be its own reward.
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The Lebanese army, once touted as the counterpoise to Hizbullah, has become its proxy.
Shai Baitel: The Counsels of Prudence Shai Baitel 2011
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The Lebanese army, once touted as the counterpoise to Hizbullah, has become its proxy.
Shai Baitel: The Counsels of Prudence Shai Baitel 2011
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It is however much, much less ugly, hateful and violent; and to try to counterpoise the two is a false equivalency.
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The “snow-white passages” and “beautiful fossils” in the nearby Mendip caves44 counterpoise a lecture on bird legends, in which the boys are told how the thieving blackbird got its black plumage and yellow beak, and—this appealed to him most—how the tiny wren defeated the eagle to become king of the birds.
Storyteller Donald Sturrock 2010
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It is however much, much less ugly, hateful and violent; and to try to counterpoise the two is a false equivalency.
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I doubt that I will live long enough ever to see a movement develop which is sufficently self-possessed to be an authentic counterpoise.
How Many Troops will Obama Withdraw from Iraq? « Antiwar.com Blog 2008
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Like Noah Baumbach, Holofcener is a counterpoise to formulaic studio films, a highly stylized naturalist bringing us bulletins from the 21st century.
bilby commented on the word counterpoise
"Our spoils we have brought home
Do more than counterpoise a full third part
The charges of the action."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.
August 29, 2009
jmjarmstrong commented on the word counterpoise
JM is constantly balancing counterpoise and counterpole and that's what counts.
July 8, 2010