equilibrist

American  

[ih-kwil-uh-brist, ee-kwuh-lib-rist, ek-wuh-] / ɪˈkwɪl ə brɪst, ˌi kwəˈlɪb rɪst, ˌɛk wə- /

noun

1. a performer who is skilled at balancing in unusual positions and hazardous movements, as a tightrope walker in a circus.

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equilibrist British  

/ ɪˈkwɪlɪbrɪst /

noun

1. a person who performs balancing feats, esp on a high wire

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Other Word Forms

• equilibristic adjective

Etymology

Origin of equilibrist

From the French word équilibriste, dating back to 1750–60. See equilibrium, -ist

Example Sentences

Or maybe they would have begun with the equilibrist who balances on a stack of dining-room chairs, striving to reach a mirror image of himself, positioned upside down on the ceiling.

From Washington Post

"In 1852, they launched the world's first underground fairground. In the tunnels there were sword swallowers, fire-eaters, magicians, tightrope walkers and Mr Green, the celebrated "bottle pantomimic equilibrist". "A whole section of the tunnel was decorated as a ballroom and they had a steam-powered musical organ.

From BBC

It’s becoming evident that voters in Europe now also expect their leaders to attempt that difficult, perhaps even impossible, equilibrist act–or be shown the door.

From Time

He was such another as the equilibrist whirling around his fixed bar, or swinging from trapeze to trapeze in the air; a specialist in a particular kind of muscular movement, which in him communicated itself to the mechanism of an instrument of sound.

From Project Gutenberg

A German, one Anton Hauslian, even set out on the journey pushing a perambulator containing his wife and six-year-old daughter; and on June 16th an American, a Miss Florence, an eighteen-year-old music-hall equilibrist, started to “walk” the distance on a globe.

From Project Gutenberg