Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To set forth in words for consideration; propound: synonym: propose.
  • intransitive verb To present or constitute.
  • intransitive verb To place (a model, for example) in a specific position.
  • intransitive verb To assume or hold a particular position or posture, as in sitting for a portrait.
  • intransitive verb To represent oneself falsely; pretend to be other than what one is.
  • noun A bodily attitude or position, such as one assumed for an artist or a photographer. synonym: posture.
  • noun In yoga, an asana.
  • noun A studied or artificial manner or attitude, often assumed in an attempt to impress or deceive others. synonym: affectation.
  • transitive verb To puzzle, confuse, or baffle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A deposit; a secret hoard.
  • noun Synonyms Position, Attitude, etc. See posture.
  • At dominoes, to set (the first domino).
  • To put questions to; interrogate closely; question; examine.
  • To puzzle, nonplus, or embarrass by a difficult question.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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
  • noun obsolete A cold in the head; catarrh.
  • intransitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb 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
  • transitive verb obsolete To interrogate; to question.
  • transitive verb To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive set in place, arrange
  • verb transitive ask, set (a test or quiz)
  • verb transitive to constitute (a danger, a threat, a risk, etc...)
  • verb intransitive assume or maintain a pose
  • verb obsolete, transitive To interrogate; to question.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.
  • noun position, posture, arrangement (especially of the human body)
  • noun affectation
  • verb obsolete To ask (someone) questions; to interrogate.
  • verb To perplex or confuse (someone).
  • noun obsolete common cold, head cold

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun affected manners intended to impress others
  • noun a posture assumed by models for photographic or artistic purposes
  • verb put into a certain place or abstract location
  • verb be a mystery or bewildering to
  • noun a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display
  • verb introduce
  • verb assume a posture as for artistic purposes
  • verb pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions
  • verb behave affectedly or unnaturally in order to impress others

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[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.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[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 pose).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French and Middle French poser, from Vulgar Latin pausare, from Latin pausa ("pause"), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (pausis); influenced by Latin ponere.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a combination of aphetic forms of appose and oppose.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English ge-pos

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Examples

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  • 1840 THACKERAY Shabby-genteel Story vi. 237 He..‘posed’ before her as a hero of the most sublime kind.

    April 11, 2008

  • im-pose: re-pose: de-pose: juxta-pose

    March 26, 2009