posture

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A position of a person's body or body parts.
• noun A characteristic way of bearing one's body; carriage.
• noun Zoology A position of an animal's body or body parts, especially for the purpose of communication.
• noun Relative placement or arrangement.
• noun A condition or state under certain circumstances.
• noun An attitude or way of behaving, especially when adopted to have an effect on others.
• noun An approach or policy with regard to something.
• intransitive verb To assume a certain, often exaggerated body position; pose.
• intransitive verb To assume a certain attitude or behave in a certain way, especially to make an impression or gain an advantage.
• intransitive verb Zoology To assume a certain position of the body or of body parts, often as part of a display.
• intransitive verb To put into a specific posture; pose.
• intransitive verb To place in a certain arrangement or condition.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To place; set.
• To place in a particular attitude; dispose for a particular purpose.
• To dispose the body in a particular posture or attitude; put one's self in an artificial posture; specifically, to contort one's self.
• To assume an artificial position of the mind or character; change the natural mental attitude; hence, to be affected; display affectation.
• noun Position; situation; condition; state: as, the posture of public affairs.
• noun The disposition of the several parts of anything with respect to one another, or with respect to a particular purpose; especially, position of the body as a whole, or of its members; attitude; pose.
• noun Disposition; attitude of mind.
• noun Synonyms Position, Posture, Attitude, Pose. These words agree in expressing the manner of standing, sitting, lying, etc. The first three may be used in a figurative sense: as, my position on that question is this; his attitude was one of hostility to the measure. Position is the most general word, and is applicable to persons or things. Posture is generally natural, and may be awkward. Attitude is generally studied for the sake of looking graceful; hence it is sometimes affected, the practice of it being then called attitudinizing. An attitude is often taken intentionally for the purpose of imitation or exemplification; generally attitude is more artistic than posture. Posture is generally used of the whole body; attitude has more liberty in referring to the parts of the body, especially the head; but position is more common in such cases. Pose is now confined to artistic positions, taken generally for effect, of part or the whole of a body or representation of a body, as a statue or a picture.

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

• transitive verb To place in a particular position or attitude; to dispose the parts of, with reference to a particular purpose
• intransitive verb To assume a particular posture or attitude; to contort the body into artificial attitudes, as an acrobat or contortionist; also, to pose.
• intransitive verb Fig.: To assume a character.
• noun The position of the body; the situation or disposition of the several parts of the body with respect to each other, or for a particular purpose; especially (Fine Arts), the position of a figure with regard to the several principal members by which action is expressed; attitude.
• noun obsolete Place; position; situation.
• noun State or condition, whether of external circumstances, or of internal feeling and will; disposition; mood

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

• noun The way a person holds and positions their body.
• noun A situation or condition.
• noun One's attitude or the social or political position one takes towards an issue or another person.
• noun rare The position of someone or something relative to another; position; situation.
• verb intransitive to put one's body into a posture or series of postures, especially hoping that one will be noticed and admired
• verb intransitive to pretend to have an opinion or a conviction

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun capability in terms of personnel and materiel that affect the capacity to fight a war
• noun the arrangement of the body and its limbs
• verb assume a posture as for artistic purposes
• noun characteristic way of bearing one's body
• verb behave affectedly or unnaturally in order to impress others
• noun a rationalized mental attitude