Complete Definition of "posture"

English

Pronunciation
(Received Pronunciation|UK) IPA|/�p�st��/, SAMPA|/"pQstS@/
(General American|US) IPA|/�p��st��/, SAMPA|/"pA:stS@`/

Noun
en-noun

  1. the way a person holds and positions their body

#* 1609, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
#*: As if that whatsoever god who leads him / Were slily crept into his human powers, / And gave him graceful posture.
#* 1689 (or earlier), Aphra Behn, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister
#*: ...walking in a most dejected posture, without a band, unbraced, his arms a-cross his open breast, and his eyes bent to the floor;
#* 1895, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
#*: Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.

  1. a situation or condition

#* 1905, David Graham Phillips, The Deluge
#*: Even as I was reading these fables of my millions, there lay on the desk before me a statement of the exact posture of my affairs...
#* 1910, H.G. Wells, The History of Mr Polly
#*: Uncle Jim stopped amazed. His brain did not instantly rise to the new posture of things.

  1. one's attitude or the social or political position one takes towards an issue or another person

#* 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
#*: ...that is, their Forts, Garrisons, and Guns upon the Frontiers of their Kingdomes; and continuall Spyes upon their neighbours; which is a posture of War.
#* 1912, G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men
#*: But it is not true, no sane person can call it true, that man as a whole in his general attitude towards the world, in his posture towards death or green fields, towards the weather or the baby, will be wise to cultivate dissatisfaction.

Translations
trans-top|position of body
Czech: postoj m
Finnish: asento
Spanish: postura
trans-mid
Portuguese: postura
Telugu: భ��ిమ (Bangima}
trans-bottom

Intransitive verb
rfc-trverb|Intransitive verb
en-verb|postur|ing

  1. to put one's body into a posture or series of postures, especially hoping that one will be noticed and admired

#:* If you're finished posturing in front of the mirror, can I use the bathroom now?

  1. to pretend to have an opinion or a conviction

#:* The politicians couldn't really care less about the issue -- they're just posturing for the media.

fa:posture
fr:posture
io:posture
id:posture
hu:posture
ru:posture
sv:posture
te:posture
vi:posture
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