pose
verb
- adjust body to look good for a photo
- pose a question, problem, etc
- adopt an attitude, role
noun
- Sustained posture or positioning of the torso and limbs
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /poʊz/ / /pəʊz/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English posen, from Old French poser (“to put, place, stell, settle, lodge”), from Vulgar Latin pausāre (“to blin, cease, pause”), from Latin pausa (“pause”), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis); influenced by Latin pōnere. Doublet of pause.
- Position, posture, arrangement (especially of the human body).
“Please adopt a more graceful pose for my camera.”
“Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway,[…].”
- Affectation.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English posen, a combination of aphetic forms of Middle English aposen and opposen. More at appose, oppose.
- To ask (someone) questions; to interrogate.
“And hit fortuned that after .iii. dayes, they founde hym in the temple sittinge in the middes of the doctours, both hearynge them, and posinge them.”
“'Tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension with those involved Ænigmas and riddles of the Trinity, with Incarnation and Resurrection.”
- to puzzle, non-plus, or embarrass with difficult questions.
- To perplex or confuse (someone).