pose

noun

1. (archaic)Common cold, head cold; catarrh.

   “Now […] have we many chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses.”

   “Megg yesterday was troubled with a pose, Which, this night hardned, sodders up her nose.”

   “The Ague, Cough, the Pyony, the Pose. Aches within, and accidents without, [...]”

   “And whereas some say, that they which use oft washing of their heads shall be very prone to headache, that is not true, but only in such that, after they have been washed, roll up their hair (being yet wet) about their heads; the cold whereof is dangerous to bring them to catarrhs and poses, with other inconveniences.”

2. 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,[…].”

3. Affectation.

verb

1. (transitive)To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect.

   “To pose a model for a picture.”

2. (transitive)To ask; to set (a test, quiz, riddle, etc.).
3. (transitive)To constitute (a danger, a threat, a risk, etc.).

   “Rather, they are concerned with the threat Iran poses to the region and the world.”

   “Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any consequence.”

   “The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad.”

4. (transitive)To falsely impersonate (another person or occupation) primarily for the purpose of accomplishing something or reaching a goal.
5. (intransitive)To assume or maintain a pose; to strike an attitude.

   “He […] posed before her as a hero.”

6. (intransitive)To behave affectedly in order to attract interest or admiration.

   “dressed-to-kill babes and their sugar daddies would rather pose in malls, and teenagers can find McDonald's anywhere, leaving Váci utterly dependent on tourists for its livelihood and bustle.”

7. (obsolete, transitive)To interrogate; to question.

   “She pretended to […] pose him and sift him.”

8. (obsolete, transitive)To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.

   “A question wherewith a learned Pharisee thought to pose or puzzle him.”

   “The Doctor […] had likewise a pair of little eyes that were always half shut up, and a mouth that was always half expanded into a grin, as if he had, that moment, posed a boy, and were waiting to convict him from his own lips.”

9. (obsolete)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.”

10. (archaic)to puzzle, non-plus, or embarrass with difficult questions.
11. (archaic)To perplex or confuse (someone).