equipoise

• æquipoise (archaic)

From equi- + poise.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛkwɪpɔɪz/

• Audio (US):

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equipoise (countable and uncountable, plural equipoises)

1. A state of balance; equilibrium.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC:

     Government was unnerved, confounded, and in a manner suspended. Its equipoise was totally gone.

   • 1869, T. S. Arthur, chapter IV, in After the Storm:

     “An easy evasion”, retorted the excited bride, who had lost her mental equipoise.

   • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, “The Figure against the Sky”, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC, book I (The Three Women), page 135:

     The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful equipoise between imminent extremes.

   • 1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “Raychandbhai”, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:

     And I saw him thus absorbed in godly pursuits in the midst of business, not once or twice, but very often. I never saw him lose his state of equipoise.

   • 2021, Ronald Mann, Justices to consider awards of costs of appellate litigation, SCOTUSblog (Apr. 20, 2021)

     To my mind, the textual arguments in this case are close to equipoise.

2. A counterbalance.
   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XI, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 136:

     Perhaps that quality which existed, in spite of the equipoise against it, in Sir Howard, was fidelity in friendship.

   • 1895 September 18, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Cone”, in The Plattner Story and Others, London: Methuen & Co. […], published March 1897, →OCLC, page 188:

     The cone's not fixed, it's hung by a chain from a lever, and balanced by an equipoise.

   • 2024 September 12, David Brooks, “How a Cultural Shift Favors Harris”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Her smiling equipoise is a statement of self-confident power against his sour fuming.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

• clinical equipoise

equipoise (third-person singular simple present equipoises, present participle equipoising, simple past and past participle equipoised)

1. (transitive) To act or make to act as an equipoise.
2. (transitive) To cause to be or stay in equipoise.

(Can we add an example for this sense?)