POISED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does poised mean? 

• POISED (adjective)
  The adjective POISED has 2 senses:

1. marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action

2. in full control of your faculties

  Familiarity information: POISED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POISED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action

Context example:

George's poised hammer

Similar:

balanced (being in a state of proper equilibrium)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In full control of your faculties

Synonyms:

collected; equanimous; poised; self-collected; self-contained; self-possessed

Context example:

strong and self-possessed in the face of trouble

Similar:

composed (serenely self-possessed and free from agitation especially in times of stress)

 Context examples 

You will be uniquely poised to receive—and announce—a major, surprising decision.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

As a result, kelp forests face a potential shortage of nitrogen just as long summer days are poised to fuel algal growth, said lead author Joey Peters.

(In search of an undersea kelp forest's missing nitrogen, National Science Foundation)

Their heads were thrown back, their lips compressed, their blood-stained swords poised over their right shoulders, and their left feet thrown out.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mechanism to fund current awardees whose research is going better than expected or who are poised to test new ideas.

(Administrative Supplement, NCI Thesaurus)

So the cells are poised to recover even while they're dying.

(Cells Back from Brink of Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Her eyes wandered along the strong throat, dimly seen in the starlight, and over the firm-poised head, and the old desire to lay her hands upon his neck came back to her.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She poised for a moment, then sprang for the dancing rabbit.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He remained calm and silent, with his eyes fixed on the ground, and the tip of every finger of his right hand delicately poised against the tip of every finger of his left.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The dog-driver held the axe poised in his hand, and as Buck shot past him the axe crashed down upon mad Dolly’s head.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing through its middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly that the weakest hand can turn it.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)