counterpoise

American  

[kaun-ter-poiz] / ˈkaʊn tərˌpɔɪz /

noun

1. a counterbalancing weight.

2. any equal and opposing power or force.

3. the state of being in equilibrium; balance.

4. Radio. a network of wires or other conductors connected to the base of an antenna, used as a substitute for the ground connection.

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verb (used with object)

counterpoised, counterpoising

1. to balance by an opposing weight; counteract by an opposing force.

2. to bring into equilibrium.

3. Archaic. to weigh (one thing) against something else; consider carefully.

counterpoise British  

/ ˈkaʊntəˌpɔɪz /

noun

1. a force, influence, etc, that counterbalances another

2. a state of balance; equilibrium

3. a weight that balances another

4. a radial array of metallic wires, rods, or tubes arranged horizontally around the base of a vertical aerial to increase its transmitting efficiency

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verb

1. to oppose with something of equal effect, weight, or force; offset

2. to bring into equilibrium

3. 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

See Examples For:

counterpoise counterpoised counterpoising

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

He tried, as a counterpoise, to remember all that he had conquered before in many a hard struggle.

From The Heritage of the Kurts, Volume II (of 2) by Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson

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 bed, on a low plinth, is counterpoised with a 19th-century Italian settee, and the angles of a Flavin fluorescent work echo the cast-iron windows overlooking Mercer Street.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2019

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

The drama of her grieving swoon is conveyed not by flourishes but by sobriety — broad, smooth, unadorned garments counterpoised with deep shadows cast in their folds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2017

On the contrary, they might be excused for from time to time flattering themselves that if the books sold at a less rate, this might be counterpoised by still greater rapidity of production.

From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart

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

The method of falsifying the balance was by loading the counterpoising weight with lead, and by filing the crosspiece that acts as fulcrum.

From The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir by John M. Garvan

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

Tested in this way, a body would, of course, weigh precisely the same anywhere; for if the gravitation of the body is altered, so is also in equal proportion the gravitation of the counterpoising weights.

From The Story of the Heavens by Sir Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball

This fatal instance of the inveteracy of this disorder, when once introduced into the colony, has not been without its counterpoising benefit.

From Statistical, Historical and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration, and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America by William Charles Wentworth