peise

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman peiser, peser and Middle French peser, from Latin pēnsāre, present active infinitive of pēnsō (“I weigh”). Doublet with poise.

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

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

peise (plural peises)

1. (obsolete) A weight; a poise.
   • [date?], Piers Plowman

     To weigh pence with a peise.

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.

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

peise

1. Alternative form of pese