The Collaborative International Dictionary
Equilibrist \E*quil"i*brist\, n. One who balances himself in unnatural positions and hazardous movements; a balancer.
When the equilibrist balances a rod upon his finger.
--Stewart.
Usage examples of "equilibrist".
Her mind seemed to fall about inside like one of those equilibrist dolls which you push one way and it keeps swinging back at you.
In order to keep the High-Binders and the Epworth Leaguers both on his Staff at one and the same time, he had to be some Equilibrist, so he never hoisted a Slug except in his own Office, where he kept it behind the Supreme Court Reports.
Yes indeed, he was an accomplished comedian and entrancing equilibrist, favorite of queens.
In the ruins of Herculaneum there is still visible a picture representing an equilibrist executing several different exercises, especially one in which he dances on a rope to the tune of a double flute, played by himself.
Desaguliers studied an individual in London named Thomas Topham, who used no ruse in his feats and was not the skilful equilibrist that the German Samson was, his performances being merely the results of abnormal physical force.
Next comes the trained elephant, the terror of our mousmes, the equilibrists, the menagerie.
That gentleman was a sort of Barnum, the director of a troupe of mountebanks, jugglers, clowns, acrobats, equilibrists, and gymnasts, who, according to the placard, was giving his last performances before leaving the Empire of the Sun for the States of the Union.
From all these, perhaps, and from other monsters likewise--goblin shapes evolved by Nature as destroyers, as equilibrists, as counterchecks to that prodigious fecundity, which, unhindered, would thicken the deep into one measureless and waveless ferment of being.
But there had long existed a class of professional actors, descended partly from the mystery and the miracle-playing artisans of the Middle Ages, partly from the strolling players, equilibrists, jugglers, and jesters.
Why is it that they can be virtual equilibrists at an autopsy table, in a kitchen, behind a dogsled, but as soon as they have to shake hands with a stranger, they sink into infantile helplessness?
Antique medals showing equilibrists making the ascent of an inclined cord have been found.
That gentleman was a sort of Barnum, the director of a troupe of mountebanks, jugglers, clowns, acrobats, equilibrists, and gymnasts, who, according to the placard, was giving his last performances before leaving the Empire of the Sun for the States of the Union.