COUNTERPOISE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Counterpoise

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verb

Counterpoise v. t. (past & past part. counterpoised; pres. part. counterpoising)

To act against with equal weight; to equal in weight; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance. "Weights, counterpoising one another."

To act against with equal power; to balance. "So many freeholders of English will be able to beard and counterpoise the rest."

noun

Counterpoise n.

A weight sufficient to balance another, as in the opposite scale of a balance; an equal weight. "Fastening that to our exact balance, we put a metalline counterpoise into the opposite scale."

An equal power or force acting in opposition; a force sufficient to balance another force. "The second nobles are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent."

The relation of two weights or forces which balance each other; equilibrium; equiponderance. "The pendulous round eart, with balanced air, In counterpoise."

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Etymology of 'Counterpoise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Counterpoise" Quotes from Famous Books

... which no modern skill can wholly counterpoise, are known and felt by the scholar alone. He has not failed, in the sweet and silent studies of his youth, to drink deep at those sacred fountains of all that is just ...

— The Glory of English Prose - Letters to My Grandson • Stephen Coleridge

... By this means they render much more decided the differences existing in the conditions of production; they check the self-levelling power of industry, prevent fusion of interests, neutralize the counterpoise, and fence in each nation within its own ...

— What Is Free Trade? - An Adaptation of Frederic Bastiat's "Sophismes Econimiques" - Designed for the American Reader • Frederic Bastiat

... Tibet is chiefly due to the habit of representing one deity in many forms and aspects, thus making him a dozen or more personages both for art and for popular worship. The adoration of saints and their images is also more developed than in Nepal and forms some counterpoise to the prevalent demonolatry. ...

— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... conflict, had not soon Th' Eternal to prevent such horrid fray Hung forth in Heav'n his golden Scales, yet seen Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion signe, Wherein all things created first he weighd, The pendulous round Earth with ballanc't Aire 1000 In counterpoise, now ponders all events, Battels and Realms: in these he put two weights The sequel each of parting and of fight; The latter quick up flew, and kickt the beam; Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend. Satan, I know thy strength, and thou knowst mine, Neither our own but giv'n; what follie ...

— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... generously about Mrs. Houghton. The sight of the woman brought that truth to his mind. He was aware of that. But no generosity on the part of the wife, no love, no temper, no virtue, no piety can be accepted by Caesar as weighing a grain in counterpoise against ...

— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope

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