Dictionary Definition

equipoise n : equality of distribution [syn: balance, equilibrium, counterbalance]

User Contributed Dictionary

A state of balance; equilibrium.
- 1794, Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble Lord,
  
  Government was unnerved, confounded, and in a manner suspended. Its equipoise was totally gone.
- 1869, T. S. Arthur, After the Storm, Ch. IV,
  
  “An easy evasion”, retorted the excited bride, who had lost her mental equipoise.
- 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Ch. 6,
  
  The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful equipoise between imminent extremes.
- 1927-29, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part II, Raychandbhai, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai,
  
  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.
A counterbalance.
- 1911, H. G. Wells, The Cone,
  
  The cone’s not fixed, it’s hung by a chain from a lever, and balanced by an equipoise.

state of balance

counterbalance

act or make to act as equipoise

cause to be or stay in balance

Equipoise is the state of being balanced or in equilibrium, usually connoting something that is a product of counterbalancing.

Equipoise may also refer to:

Equipoise (album), a 1993 album by Happy Rhodes
Equipoise (horse), a thoroughbred race horse
Clinical equipoise, or the Principle of Equipoise, a medical research term
Equipoise (denture), a removable partial denture system
Equipoise (drug), the trade name for Boldenone
Equipoise (law), a legal term refering to a balancing test of aggravating and mitigating factors when jurors consider the death penalty
Equipoise (poetry), a poetic term
Equipoise (propeller), a type of propeller