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.

His combative persona and provocations, however, have poised him for pitfalls.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2023

The spectators stand aghast; the pursuers have poised themselves in the water, and advance no farther.

From Osceola the Seminole The Red Fawn of the Flower Land by Reid, Mayne

How grieved it now their souls to have poised the dart With arm outstretched; to have felt their raving thirst; And prayed the gods for victory in vain!

From Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars by Lucan

Vintages that she felt her father would have poised on his tongue in mystic clucking ecstasy stood untasted in a regiment of little glasses at her elbow.

From The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes by Zangwill, Israel

But something drew me back to my first station, I know not why; and there I poised, as a bird might have poised, and lost myself in a blissful dream.

From The Thread of Gold by Benson, Arthur Christopher