See Also: Official settlements balance (overall balance)(finance)
Official settlements balance (overall balance)(money)
On balance(finance)
balance(dictionary)
balance(2)(dictionary)
balance(1)(dictionary)
Balance(health)
balance(encyclopedia)
BALANCE, com(law)
Balance(medicine)

balance(2) (iou)



balance verb. L16.
[Old & mod. French balancer, formed as BALANCE noun.]
I. gen.
verb trans. Weigh in or with a balance. rare in lit. sense. L16.
verb trans. Weigh (two or more arguments, considerations, etc.) against each other; consider with a view to making a choice. L16.
Yeats I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath. J. le Carre Do you think they sit like monks..balancing the rights and wrongs?
verb trans. Equal in weight; neutralize the weight of; make up for. L16.
R. Lynd The craving for getting things done is balanced..by the craving for leaving things undone. A. J. P. Taylor They were reinforced by Irish immigrants and made a number of intellectual converts, roughly balancing the old Catholics who lapsed.
verb trans. Counterbalance or match (one thing) by, with, or against another. E17.
J. Ruskin A mass of subdued colour may be balanced by a point of a powerful one. T. Hardy And don't you know that a woman who loves at all thinks nothing of perjury when it is balanced against her love?
verb trans. Weigh (a matter or problem); ponder. M17.
Tennyson She balanced this a little, And told me she would answer us to-day.
verb trans. Bring into or keep in equilibrium (lit. & fig.); keep steady or erect. M17.
Dickens Strong men..balancing chests of drawers..upon their heads. G. Murray The future seemed about equally balanced between good and evil. Scott Fitzgerald He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car. F. Chichester I trimmed the tail as delicately as I could to balance the plane, but she would not stabilize. S. Hill Dorothea stood alone,..balancing the two pots in her hand.
b. spec. Adjust (sources of sound) to the correct relative positions, volume levels, etc. E20.
verb intrans. Waver, deliberate, hesitate. arch. M17.
C. Merivale The same disposition to balance and temporize.
verb intrans. Keep steady or erect, esp. as a feat of acrobatics or dancing. E19.
Joseph Strutt Tumbling and balancing..exhibited by the gleemen. fig.: Times Literary Supplement The East-West balancing act of Rapallo.
II. spec. Of an account (lit. & fig.).
verb trans. Add up and compare the debit and credit sides of (an account or set of accounts). L16.
verb trans. Make entries in (an account or set of accounts) that will make the two sides equal; of an entry: make the two sides of (an account) equal. E17.
verb trans. Settle (an account) by paying the amount due. M18.
verb intrans. Of an account: have its two sides equal. L19.
balanceable adjective M17.
balanced adjective poised, in equilibrium; well arranged or disposed; with no constituent lacking or in excess: L16.
balancer noun (a) a person who balances, esp. an acrobat; (b) a thing which balances; spec. = HALTERE 2: LME.