Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Posture

Pos′ture, n. [F., fr. L. positura, fr. ponere, positum, to place. See Position.] 1. The position of the body; the situation or disposition of the several parts of the body with respect to each other, or for a particular purpose; especially (Fine Arts), the position of a figure with regard to the several principal members by which action is expressed; attitude.

Atalanta, the posture of whose limbs was so lively expressed . . . one would have sworn the very picture had run. Sir P. Sidney.

In most strange postures We have seen him set himself. Shak.

The posture of a poetic figure is a description of his heroes in the performance of such or such an action. Dryden.

2. Place; position; situation. [Obs.] Milton.

His [man's] noblest posture and station in this world. Sir M. Hale.

3. State or condition, whether of external circumstances, or of internal feeling and will; disposition; mood; as, a posture of defense; the posture of affairs.

The several postures of his devout soul. Atterbury.

Syn. — Attitude; position. See Attitude.

Pos′ture, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Postured; p. pr. & vb. n. Posturing.] To place in a particular position or attitude; to dispose the parts of, with reference to a particular purpose; as, to posture one's self; to posture a model. Howell.

Pos′ture, v. i. 1. To assume a particular posture or attitude; to contort the body into artificial attitudes, as an acrobat or contortionist; also, to pose.

2. Fig.: To assume a character; as, to posture as a saint.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.