COUNTERPOISE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Counterpoise

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verb

Counterpoise v. t. (past & past part. counterpoised; pres. part. counterpoising)

To act against with equal weight; to equal in weight; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance. "Weights, counterpoising one another."

To act against with equal power; to balance. "So many freeholders of English will be able to beard and counterpoise the rest."

noun

Counterpoise n.

A weight sufficient to balance another, as in the opposite scale of a balance; an equal weight. "Fastening that to our exact balance, we put a metalline counterpoise into the opposite scale."

An equal power or force acting in opposition; a force sufficient to balance another force. "The second nobles are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent."

The relation of two weights or forces which balance each other; equilibrium; equiponderance. "The pendulous round eart, with balanced air, In counterpoise."

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Etymology of 'Counterpoise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Counterpoise" Quotes from Famous Books

... forcible character. Kur-Brandenburg now joined it formally, as did many more; Kur-Sachsen, anxious to make himself convenient in other quarters, never would. Add to these phenomena, the now decisive appearance of a "Catholic LIGA" (League of Catholic Princes), which, by way of counterpoise to the "Union," had been got up by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria several months ago; and which now, under the same guidance, in these bad circumstances, took a great expansion of figure. Duke Maximilian, "DONAUWORTH ...

— History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. III. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great--The Hohenzollerns In Brandenburg--1412-1718 • Thomas Carlyle

... paralyze as much as is in their power, by their tendency towards the isolation of nations. By this means they render much more decided the differences existing in the conditions of production; they check the self-levelling power of industry, prevent fusion of interests, neutralize the counterpoise, and fence in each nation within its own ...

— What Is Free Trade? - An Adaptation of Frederic Bastiat's "Sophismes Econimiques" - Designed for the American Reader • Frederic Bastiat

... could not give him. On that at any rate she was fixed. She could not barter herself about from one to the other either as a make-weight or a counterpoise. All his pleading was in vain; all his generosity would fail in securing to him this one reward that he desired. And now she had to ...

— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... there were indeed any thing in it that could justly be complained of, our duty might still be to bear with the local evil, as correcting an opposite extreme in some other quarter of the Island;—as a counterpoise of some weight elsewhere pressing injuriously upon the springs of social order. How deplorable would be the ignorance, how pitiful the pride, that could prevent us from submitting to a partial evil for the sake of a general good! In fine, if a comprehensive ...

— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... is that ever since the Herzegovinian embroglio the Ballplatz is little more than a counterpoise to the Wilhelmstrasse." ...

— Frenzied Fiction • Stephen Leacock

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