self-poised

[self-poizd]

adjective

1. acting with poise.

2. being balanced without support.

Other Word Forms

• self-poisedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-poised¹

First recorded in 1620–30; self- ( def. ) + poised ( def. )

Example Sentences

He said, "The great principle of being happy in this world is not to mind or be affected with small things," a maxim which he carried out in his peaceful, self-poised, and remarkably happy life.

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He was remarkably calm and self-poised through life, saying that a painter should never be agitated.

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“No sun yet beam’d from yon cerulean height; No orbing moon repair’d her horns of light; No earth, self-poised, on liquid ether hung; No sea its world-enclasping waters flung; Earth was half air, half sea, an embryo heap; Nor earth was fix’d, nor fluid was the deep; Dark was the void of air; no form was traced; Obstructing atoms struggled through the waste; Where cold, and hot, and moist, and dry rebell’d; Heavy the light, and hard the soft repell’d.”

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Through it all he was the self-poised American, never losing his native sense of humour.

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Well it becomes the favorite of fortune, The royal arbitress of others' weal, The world's desire, and England's deity, Self-poised, self-governed, clear and firm to gaze Where others close their aching eyes, to dream.

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