stance

noun

1. The manner, pose, or posture in which one stands.

   “The fencer’s stance showed he was ready to begin.”

   “Stance and gait are best examined with the patient barefoot; meaningful findings can be obtained only if the patient has enough room to walk in. The testing of stance and gait often provides important clues to the type of disease process that is present.”

   “Peter Gammons told me Yaz switched his stance every year, but Cal [Ripken Jr.]'s brother Billy [Ripken] said Cal switched his stance midseason, midgame, even mid-at-bat. […] The most beloved and memorable of the Ripken stances was "the Violin." Cal would bend his knees and slightly open his stance to face the pitcher. He would rest the bat on his shoulder while thrusting the bat knob back and forth toward the strike zone. This movement was widely considered Cal's batting masterpiece.”

2. One's opinion or point of view.

   “I don’t agree with your stance on gun control.”

   “His [François Hollande's] stance as being against the world of finance and his proposal of a 75% tax on incomes over €1m (£817,000) was approved by a majority in polls. He was convinced that his more measured, if ploddingly serious, style would win out with an electorate tired of [Nicolas] Sarkozy's bling and frenetic policy initiatives.”

3. A place to stand; a position, a site, a station.

   “No! sooner may the Saxon lance / Unfix Benledi from his stance, / Than doubt or terror can pierce through / The unyielding heart of Robert Dhu; […]”

   “The British host had stood / That morn 'gainst charge of sword and lance / As their own ocean-rocks hold stance, / But when thy voice had said, "Advance!" / They were their ocean's flood.— […]”

4. (specifically)A place to stand; a position, a site, a station.

   “In a harness belay, the stance itself is the belayer's first line of defense, reducing the load the anchor must hold. The anchor in this case serves as little more than a backup (albeit a critical one) to the stance.”

   “There is always the option of clambering up slightly higher and building a new belay station (stance), take in the rope for a fellow climber, once again clamber up higher and once again build a new, higher stance … and so on until the rope reaches the stop where the upper end of the rope has become caught in the rock.”

5. (Scotland)A place for buses or taxis to await passengers; a bus stop, a taxi rank.

   “The number of Carriages at each of the Stances or divisions of Stances, and the spaces to be occupied, shall be fixed from time to time as may be found necessary. In the event of any New Stance being appointed during the currency of these Regulations, if said Stance shall be within half a mile of the nearest fixed Stance, the Fares from said New Stance shall be the same as from the Stance nearest to it.”

6. (Scotland)A place where a fair or market is held; a location where a street trader can carry on business.

   “To the action by the proprietor of a tenement in burgh against the proprietor of the adjoining stance to recover one-half the cost of a mutual gable, of which the defender had taken the use, it was pleaded in defence (1) that the mutual gable having been erected by the common author of the parties no claim arose to the proprietor of one stance against the proprietor of the other; […]”

7. (obsolete, rare)A stanza.

   “Other Muſique, and voyces; and this ſecond Stance was ſung, directing their obſeruance to the King. […] This ended the Phœbades ſung the third Stance.”

verb

1. (Scotland, transitive)To place, to position, to station; (specifically) to put (cattle) into an enclosure or pen in preparation for sale.

   “Rob Roy ſtood watch / On a hill for to catch / The booty for ought that I ſa', man, / For he ne'er advanced, / From the place he was ſtanc'd, / 'Till no more to do there at a' man, […]”