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

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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

One conceives of the counterpoise in Stock, of Male and Female complements, as being akin to that of the opposite and complementary curves of an arch.

From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Arabella Kenealy

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

Add now to the counterpoised scale, one and a half ounces avoirdupois, and a fourpenny piece; if the bottle prove the heavier, the guano is, in all probability, adulterated.

From Guano A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers by Solon Robinson

P. B. Luther and Ignatius Loyola.—A parallel or counterpoising view of these two characters has been quoted in several publications, some of recent date; but in all it is attributed to a wrong source.

From Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by George Bell

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

Attached to the suspending machinery are two counterpoising weights, which being less heavy than the waggon laden with coal, do not impede its descent.

From A Yacht Voyage Round England by William Henry Giles Kingston

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

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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