[a. F. balancer, f. balance sb. (Like the sb., in certain senses confused with ballast.)]
I. To place or weigh in the scales. Chiefly fig.
1. trans. To weigh (a matter); to estimate the two aspects or sides of anything; to ponder.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccccv. 436. We Weigh and Ballance things before we pronounce them to be either Good or Evil.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, III. i. Weighing and balancing what you were pleased to mention.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 149. She balanced this a little, And told me she would answer us to-day.
2. To weigh two things, considerations, etc., against each other, so as to ascertain which preponderates.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. ii. 31. Then would he ballaunce heaven and hell together.
1629. R. Hill, Pathw. Piety, II. 137. Christ … is balanced with Barabbas, and thought lighter than a murderer.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iii. 47. To weigh and balance Pleasures and Uneasinesses.
1875. Grindon, Life, i. 1. Truth … is determined by balancing probabilities.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xviii. 216. His good and bad actions are balanced against each other.
3. To counterbalance or counterpoise one thing by, with or against another.
1624. Ld. Kensington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 301, III. 173. That the honor of the Prince … might be deerer to her then to be balanced with that which [etc.].
1625. Bacon, Ess. (1862), 154. Another meanes to curbe them, is to Ballance them by others, as Proud as they.
1850. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. § i. viii. A mass of subdued colour may be balanced by a point of a powerful one.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 47. The self-same wisdom which balanced Egypt against Assyria.
1884. American, VII. 345. To balance asymmetrically-placed entrance doors with lobsided windows.
4. To bring to or keep in equilibrium.
1634. Habington, Castara, 47. That Kings, to ballance true content, shall say: Would they were great as we, we blest as they.
1738. Pope, Epil. Sat., I. 60. Did not the sneer of more impartial men At sense and virtue balance all again.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 81. On which it may fix its attention, and thus balance its own energies.
1853. Brimley, Ess., 282. [The painter] may fail to balance his masses.
5. To steady (a body under the influence of opposing forces); to poise, keep steady or erect.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xiii. Strong men … balancing chests of drawers … upon their heads.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 54. Sculptors are sometimes obliged to use a species of tail in balancing their statues.
b. refl. and intr. To keep oneself in equilibrium.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 15. The Instructor will … make the recruit balance upon the left foot.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, iv. 58. Balanced herself half over the balcony-rail.
6. To steady, give (mental) balance or ballast to.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., 1 Tim. iii. 6. Young, raw Christians … have had less time to learn the great things which should ballance them. [See BALANCED ppl. a. 3.]
II. To act as things in the opposite scales of a balance; lit. and fig.
7. trans. To equal in weight, counterpoise, neutralize the weight of. Also absol. to balance (each other).
1704. Newton, Optics (1721), 346 (J.). The Attraction of the Glass is almost balanc’d and render’d ineffectual by the contrary Attraction of the Liquor.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 91. The column of water … balances the atmospheric pressure.
Mod. Do these scales balance?
8. Hence: To compensate, neutralize the effect of, make up for.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Dido, III. iv. I saw no King like thee, Whose golden crown might balance my content.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VI. ii. § 57 III. 292. Wherefore, to ballance the Protestants, the Jesuits were set on foot.
1726. Butler, Serm. Rolls Chap., v. 90. So many things … ballance the Sorrow of it.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. xxiv. 358. Our duties balance each other.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 384. And weariness was balanced with delight.
9. intr. To act as a counterpoise, be equal (with).
1579. Beard, Theat. Gods Judgm. (1612), 539. Could such a punishment ballance with his so … great offences?
III. To oscillate like the beam of a balance.
10. intr. To waver, deliberate, hesitate. Cf. 1.
1655. Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 628. Her great danger … invited my assistance, which, without balancing, I ran to pay her.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1781), II. xxvi. 246. He had … no very strong aspirations after matrimony, and had balanced about it a good while.
1825. R. Ward, Tremaine, I. v. 37. Mrs. Belson balanced some time upon this, as any good mother would.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. ix. 373. The same disposition to balance and temporize … wrecked his fortunes as a statesman.
11. Of partners in dancing: To move to and fro in converse directions like the arms of a balance, to set to a partner.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, III. iv. (1883), 113. I must rub up my balancing, and chasing, and boring.
1859. in Worcester.
12. trans. To sway backwards and forwards.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 200. Tuning his voice and balancing his hands.
IV. Of an account. lit. and fig.
13. trans. To add up the debit and credit sides of an account or set of accounts, and ascertain the difference, if any, between their respective amounts.
1588. Mellis, Briefe Instr., E vij. At your viages returne … ballance vp the bookes.
1734. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 130. To compute and balance my gain and my loss.
1796. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 383. Thus we balance the account;—defeat and dishonour abroad; oppression at home.
a. 1842. Tennyson, Audley Crt., 43. ‘Oh! who would cast and balance at a desk?’
14. To make such entries in an account or set of accounts as make the two sides equal; to produce an equality in the total amounts of the debit and credit entries of a set of accounts.
b. In this sense, also, accounts are said (intr.) to balance (i.e., themselves); or an entry is said to balance the account, or balance an opposite entry.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 371. And if he had beene a loser by the Account of profit and losse, then must he make his Capitall Debtor, and the said Account Creditor, to ballance the matter.
1675. Gregory, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men, II. 276. I cannot perceive how the balance balanceth the book.
1748. Anson, Voy., III. viii. 373. The happy crisis which was to ballance the account of all their past calamities.
1878. Jevons, Prin. Pol. Econ., 52. To make the profits of the successful business balance the losses of the unfortunate ones.
15. Hence: To settle (an account) by paying an amount due, to clear off a liability.
1740. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 142. The end of the season, when dues to ballance came too thick upon ’em.
1877. H. Page, De Quincey, II. xvi. 20. A cheque for £30, to balance his account.
V. 16. Naut. To reef with a balance-reef, so as to steady the ship in bad weather: see BALANCE sb. 22. Perhaps originally ballast.
[Cf. 1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 414. We furl’d our Main-sail, and ballasted our Mizen.]
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 460. The balanced mizen, rending to the head. Ibid. (1769), Dict. Marine (1789), s.v., A boom main-sail is balanced, after all its reefs are taken in, by rolling up … the aftmost lower corner.
¶ 17. To ballast. Obs. rare. Cf. BALANCE sb. 7 ¶.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1836), 202. There is no ship so balanced with massie matter as their heades are fraught with all kinde of baudie songes.
[Cf. 1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Upper-work … that part of a ship which is above the surface of the water when she is properly balanced for a sea-voyage.]
