See Also: position(1)(dictionary)
Position self(finance)
Position(medicine)
Position(finance)
Position(money)
Take a position(finance)
Take a Position(money)
position(2)(dictionary)
pre-position(dictionary)
Position self(money)

position(1) (iou)



position noun. LME.
[Old & mod. French, or Latin positio(n-) a putting, placing; affirmation; theme, subject, etc., formed as POSIT, rendering Greek THESIS, thema THEME: see -ITION.]
The place occupied by a thing, person, etc., or in which a thing etc. is put; (a) situation, (a) site, (a) station. LME.
F. Chichester Position by dead reckoning at 01.00 hours..33 15'S., 171 35'E. J. Wain He was in a position to see everyone who came in at the door. K. Amis Oswald Hart shifted two..chairs into position.
b. Military. A strategic site at which soldiers are stationed. L18.
C. Ryan Camouflaged nettings suddenly swung back to reveal hidden enemy positions.
Chiefly Logic & Philosophy. The action of positing; the putting forward of a proposition; affirmation, postulation. Now rare. LME.
Shakespeare Othello I do not in position Distinctly speak of her.
b. A proposition laid down or stated; something posited; an assertion, a tenet. L15.
D. Hume An edict, which contains many extraordinary positions and pretensions.
c. Math. A method of finding the value of an unknown. Also rule of false position, rule of position. M16.
Phonology. The situation of a vowel in an open or closed syllable, as affecting its length. L16.
The action of positioning or placing. E17-M18.
The way in which a thing or its parts are disposed or arranged; (a) posture, (a) bodily attitude; spec. (a) the disposition of the pieces and pawns on the board at any point in a game of chess etc.; (b) the disposition of the limbs in a dance step; (c) the posture adopted during sexual intercourse; (d) Music the arrangement of the constituent notes of a chord; (e) Music the location of the hand on the finger-board of a stringed instrument. E18.
A. D. Philidor In this position it is a drawn game. C. Bront? I cannot see you without disturbing my position in this comfortable chair. N. Coward Little girls in ballet dresses practising 'positions'. Times There was actuallythis was, maybe, 1938a chapter on positions. Wow!
a. The situation which a person metaphorically occupies in relation to others, to circumstances, etc.; condition, a state of affairs; a point of view. E19.
I. Murdoch Madge was in no position to make complaints. S. Unwin I explained the position and ended by asking them what they would do in my shoes. P. Grosskurth Jones tried to maintain a politically independent position as president.
b. Place in the social scale; social state or standing; status; rank. Also social position. M19.
L. Uris He thought the position of women intolerable; they were held in absolute bondage, never seen. G. Butler I am a young woman of education and social position.
c. A post of (paid) employment. L19.
A. C. Clarke Chief engineer of a liner on the Martian run, which..is a very responsible position. A. S. Dale His hopes of securing a university position had been destroyed.
The state of being favourably or advantageously placed; location or disposition (e.g. in chess, snooker) conferring an advantage. L19.
R. Blount Too much energy goes into cutthroat jockeying for position.
Commerce. (The inventory of) an investor's net holdings in one or more markets at a particular time; the status of an individual or institutional trader's contract(s), esp. as long- or short-term. E20.
Phrases: angle of position = position angle below. circle of position Astronomy a circle on the terrestrial globe whose centre is the substellar point of a given star and whose radius corresponds to the angular distance of the star from the zenith. DEFINE one's position. eastward position: see EASTWARD adjective. false position: see FALSE adjective. fifth position: see FIFTH adjective. FIRST position. five positions: see FIVE adjective. fourth position: see FOURTH adjective. in position in the proper or designated position. lotus position: see LOTUS 4b. missionary position: see MISSIONARY adjective & noun. out of position in a position other than the proper or designated one. pole position: see POLE noun1 3b. rule of false position, rule of position: see sense 2c above. second position: see SECOND adjective. third position: see THIRD adjective & noun. westward position: see WESTWARD adjective.
Comb.: position angle an angle giving the direction in which a point lies with respect to another point; esp. (Astronomy) the angle between the hour circle passing through a celestial object and the line joining that object to another object; position-finding the process of ascertaining one's position or that of a distant object, esp. automatically by radio or similar means; position line a line on which the observer is computed to be after having taken a bearing; position paper a written statement of attitude or intentions (in business etc.); position vector Math. a vector which defines the position of a point.