counterpoise
Americannoun
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a counterbalancing weight.
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any equal and opposing power or force.
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the state of being in equilibrium; balance.
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Radio. a network of wires or other conductors connected to the base of an antenna, used as a substitute for the ground connection.
verb (used with object)
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to balance by an opposing weight; counteract by an opposing force.
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to bring into equilibrium.
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Archaic. to weigh (one thing) against something else; consider carefully.
noun
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a force, influence, etc, that counterbalances another
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a state of balance; equilibrium
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a weight that balances another
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a radial array of metallic wires, rods, or tubes arranged horizontally around the base of a vertical aerial to increase its transmitting efficiency
verb
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to oppose with something of equal effect, weight, or force; offset
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to bring into equilibrium
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archaic to consider (one thing) carefully in relation to another
Etymology
Origin of counterpoise
1375–1425; counter- + poise 1; replacing late Middle English countrepeis < Anglo-French, equivalent to Old French contrepois
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Molina, the embodiment of theatrical excellence, is perfectly cast as the rational counterpoise to Brady’s zealotry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
Hope, Berger proposed, is what we counterpoise to the essential revelation of history—that we’ll decline, that we’ll die.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 9, 2017
What Sofiya succeeds in doing in her novel is to counterpoise, to her husband’s inability to conjure love, her own utterly different vision.
From Slate ● Feb. 1, 2015
At times Bond acts as a counterpoise to Wanamaker's despair; at other times, as when she voices Eleanor's escalating insecurities, she brings her own tragic intensity to the role.
From The Guardian ● May 7, 2013
Round the spiral groove of the cylinder a catgut band was wound, one end of which was attached to a treadle and the other to a counterpoise weight.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
In a cluttered information age, where attention is a prized and scarce commodity, Nuzzi and Lizza—with their perfectly counterpoised surnames—have somehow broken through.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
The baby is not a metaphor, the narrator warns us, yet her wild, untrammeled, inscrutable being is everywhere counterpoised by the internet’s similarly enigmatic existence.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2021
In the more lush musical passages, she counterpoised a subtle sense of freeze-framing, with the dancers halting momentarily so we could absorb the length and reach of their unfolding shapes.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2019
It’s composed in a rare register: mourning and fury counterpoised by humor and a refusal of despair.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2018
The mode in which the thrust of vaults is counterpoised is, as has been shown, frankly displayed by the Gothic architects, and as a rule, every portion of the structure is freely exhibited.
From Architecture Gothic and Renaissance by T. Roger (Thomas Roger) Smith
Also, a counterpoising log of wood, rigged out from the side of a narrow boat or canoe, to prevent it from being upset.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
He returns to his main thesis, and other counterpoising arguments occur to him.
From Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned by Christopher Morley
Peace, as opposed to war, is a tremendous counterpoising of forces, and it simply means an organised resistance.
From Father Payne by Arthur Christopher Benson
The attraction exerted on a flat armature across air gaps 2 millimeters thick was measured by counterpoising.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891 by Various
This was usually done on the pretense of picking up the counterpoising weight which had been purposely left on the ground.
From The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir by John M. Garvan
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