From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpoisepoise1 /pɔɪz/ noun [uncountable] 1 CALMa calm confident way of behaving, combined with an ability to control your feelings or reactions in difficult situations Louisa seems to have much more poise and confidence.2 GRACEFULa graceful way of moving or standing, so that your body seems balanced and not awkward the poise of a dancer She’s pretty, but lacks poise.
Examples from the Corpus
poise• Margerie was very beautiful, with the grace and poise of a movie star.• And it was a humdinger, delivered with passion and poise.• And yet this gangsta poise coexists with a weirdly playful quality.• The Bears were 13 points behind, but Coach Stenstrom maintained his poise and confidence.• Anne is tall and thin, but lacks poise.• On the other hand, I can think of no group that will handle defeat with more poise and grace.• Nigel was ostentatiously smoking a big cigar to give an illusion of poise.• Junior Marquez Shaw showed a lot of poise in completing nine of 12 passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns.• From a state of poise and self-confidence, she was suddenly overwhelmingly self-conscious.• With remarkable poise, he quickly put the two broken pieces in one hand and made an attempt to paddle canoe-style.• They felt that he lacked sufficient poise and confidence for the job.poisepoise2 verb [transitive always + adverb/preposition] BALANCEto put or hold something in a carefully balanced position, especially above something elsepoise something over/above something He poised the bottle over her glass. ‘More wine?’→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
poise• Feel elegant and poised as you do them.• The man remained poised between the two like a bridge, without moving in one direction or the other.• To sit down in meditation and think of these mystical ideas is to poise oneself for the transcendent journey.• Bryant has a reputation as an unusually poised, thoughtful teenager, and Twardzik believes that those qualities would ripen in college.• He made it plain, quite quickly, that he was poised to adore Anna.• They are held together, poised upright like a pencil standing on its point, by the recursive dynamics of coevolution.Origin poise (1300-1400) Old French pois “weight, heaviness”, from Latin pensum, from pendere “to weigh” 