Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To assume or hold a particular position or posture, as in sitting for a portrait.
- v. To affect a particular mental attitude.
- v. To represent oneself falsely; pretend to be other than what one is.
- v. To place (a model, for example) in a specific position.
- v. To set forth in words; propound: pose a question.
- v. To put forward; present: pose a threat. See Synonyms at propose.
- n. A bodily attitude or position, especially one assumed for an artist or a photographer. See Synonyms at posture.
- n. A studied attitude assumed for effect. See Synonyms at affectation.
- v. To puzzle, confuse, or baffle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cold in the head; catarrh.
- To put; place; set.
- To put by way of supposition or hypothesis; suppose.
- To lay down as a proposition; state; posit.
- To place in suitable or becoming position or posture; cause to assume a suitable or effective attitude: as, to pose a person for a portrait.
- To bear; conduct.
- To make a supposition; put the case.
- To assume a particular attitude or rôle; endeavor to appear or be regarded (as something else); attitudinize, literally or figuratively: as, to pose as a model; to pose as a martyr.
- n. Attitude or position, whether taken naturally or assumed for effect: as, the pose of an actor; especially, the attitude in which any character is represented artistically; the position, whether of the whole person or of an individual member of the body: as, the pose of a statue; the pose of the head. In physiology the pose of a muscle is the latent period between the stimulation of a muscle-fiber and its contraction.
- n. A deposit; a secret hoard.
- n. Synonyms Position, Attitude, etc. See posture.
- To put questions to; interrogate closely; question; examine.
- To puzzle, nonplus, or embarrass by a difficult question.
- At dominoes, to set (the first domino).
Wiktionary
- v. set in place, arrange
- v. ask, set (a test or quiz)
- v. to constitute (a danger, a threat, a risk, etc...)
- v. assume or maintain a pose
- v. To ask (someone) questions; to interrogate.
- v. To perplex or confuse (someone).
- n. position, posture, arrangement (especially of the human body)
- n. affectation
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A cold in the head; catarrh.
- n. The attitude or position of a person; the position of the body or of any member of the body; especially, a position formally assumed for the sake of effect; an artificial position
- v. To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect; to arrange the posture and drapery of (a person) in a studied manner
- v. To assume and maintain a studied attitude, with studied arrangement of drapery; to strike an attitude; to attitudinize; figuratively, to assume or affect a certain character.
- v. To interrogate; to question.
- v. To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.
WordNet 3.0
- n. affected manners intended to impress others
- n. a posture assumed by models for photographic or artistic purposes
- v. put into a certain place or abstract location
- v. be a mystery or bewildering to
- n. a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display
- v. introduce.
- v. assume a posture as for artistic purposes
- v. pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions
- v. behave affectedly or unnaturally in order to impress others
Etymologies
- Middle English posen, to place, from Old French poser, from Vulgar Latin *pausāre, from Late Latin pausāre, to rest, from Latin pausa, pause; see pause.Short for appose, to examine closely (from Middle English apposen, alteration of opposen; see oppose) and from French poser, to assume (obsolete) (from Old French; see pose1).
Examples
“Liverpool Street, you pose -- yes, _pose_, Jack -- as the urbane man,”
“The anti-Israel, anti-Jew pose is usually found among Dems these days.”
“The pose is dynamic, showing Ollie in action, having just loosed one of his arrows and with his bow still held aloft.”
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“Admittedly his unfortunate comment about my musical ability has been described as ill advised and rather tasteless but as one becomes to know Jim or “Jimbo” … as he likes to called by his friends. .one realizes that his confrontational pose is just simple and harmless musical jealousy.”
“But the pose is very static and the same can be said of the figure in front.”
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“Random diffusion comes in a number of different varieties, so the first question one might pose is to ask which particular type is being suggested here.”
“The corpse pose is one of the first exercises taught to a student.”
“The corpse pose is one posture that helps the body to relax completely and is often used as a relaxation exercise.”
“This pose is often repeated during other yogic postures and is also done at the end of each session.”
“This pose is very easy to perform and is also a good meditative posture for it allows the mind to relax and gain strength.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pose’.
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Academic Vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3092 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Deprefixed words
A list of words you more frequently hear used with prefixes than without.
clement, witting, ravel, whelm, fettered, licit, couth, bridled, wieldy, kempt, ingenuous, iterate and 110 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 128 more...

fbharjo im-pose: re-pose: de-pose: juxta-pose Mar 26, 2009
travismcdermott 1840 THACKERAY Shabby-genteel Story vi. 237 He..‘posed’ before her as a hero of the most sublime kind. Apr 10, 2008