peise

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman, Middle French and French paiser, peiser, peisser and peser, from Latin pēnsāre, present active infinitive of pēnsō (“weigh”).

Verb

peise (third-person singular simple present peises, present participle peising, simple past and past participle peised)

1. To weigh or measure the weight of; to poise.
2. (figuratively) To weigh or take the measure of (an immaterial object).

Noun

peise (plural peises)

1. A weight; a poise.
2. (obsolete) A heavy blow, an impact.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     Great Ptolomæe it for his lemans sake / Ybuilded all of glasse, by Magicke powre, / And also it impregnable did make; / Yet when his loue was false, he with a peaze it brake.

Quotations

• "To weigh pence with a peise." - Piers Plowman

References

• Oxford English Dictionary
• peise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913