The remainder of anything.
1819. Balance is another word which is twisted from its proper meaning. This is made to imply the remainder. “The balance (unappropriated residue of land) will be sold at auction.”—David Thomas, ‘Travels,’ p. 231 (Auburn, N.Y.).
1823. Lost (by lending) the Third vol. of Peregrine Pickle. The person [who] has said book is requested to return it, or call and get the balance of the work.—Missouri Intelligencer, June 24 (Franklin, Mo.).
1825. He returned the “balance” [of the tobacco], with a word or two of acknowledgment, which nobody was able to make out.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ ii. 81.
1833. The balance of the dogs buckled in, and off they went right up a hollow.—‘Sketches of D. Crockett,’ p. 82 (N.Y.).
1834. The way I’ll lick you, will be a caution to the balance of your family, if it don’t, damn me.—Knick. Mag., iii. 35 (Jan.).
1835. I’d have made them all rich, and give away the balance.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 36 (Phila.).
1837. The balance of this country consists of pine barrens, intersected with ponds and sink holes.—John L. Williams, ‘The Territory of Florida,’ p. 130 (N.Y.).
1838. [In the Kansas Territory] the word “balance” comes into almost every transaction—“will you not have a dessert for the balance of your dinner?”—“to make out the balance of his night’s rest, he slept until eight in the morning.”—Samuel Parker, ‘Tour,’ p. 33.
1842. The word balance is constantly used to signify the remainder of anything, as, “I shall spend the summer in the mountains, and the balance of the year on the sea-coast,”—or, “I shall be at my office in the morning, and the balance of the day in the country.”—“I have only read the first volume of Cheveley, but I shall finish the balance by to-morrow;”—and at dinner, it is not uncommon to be asked “What will you take for the balance of your dinner?”—J. S. Buckingham, ‘Slave States,’ ii. 132.
1842. He always grows enough to bread his own people for a year at least, and sells the balance.—Id., ii. 167.
1843. The balance of her time will be sold very low.—Advt., Missouri Reporter, Jan. 28 (St. Louis).
1843. Hoops and the balance thought there was a young earthquake, and some sprang for the windows, others for the doors.—Shields, ‘Life of Prentiss,’ 93 (1884).
1843. [He] spent the remainder of the night, up to three o’clock, in piloting the young lady homeward, and the balance, till dawn, in discovering his way back again.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Writings,’ p. 198.
1843. Set me down for the balance of the fust edition; it’ll be a fust-rate paper.—Id., p. 221.
1845. While the balance of the dramatis personæ were enjoying the farce they enacted, he was “doing” tragedy in good earnest.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Chronicles of Pineville,’ p. 151 (Phila.).
1846. Nives is scase, so give what thar is to the galls an let the balance use thar paws.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 87.
1847. Half of Oregon is gone to Great Britain, and the slave-power claims the balance.—Mr. Wentworth of Ill., House of Repr., Feb. 6: Congressional Globe, p. 342.
1846. Four of the children they were obliged to carry on their backs, the balance walked.—E. Bryant, ‘What I saw in California,’ p. 256 (N.Y.).
1848. I … slep with one eye open the balance of the night.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 161 (Phila.).
1850. [A political party in Wisconsin] was derisively known as “Barstow and the Balance”—a taking catch-phrase for the opposition.—Thwaites, ‘The Story of Wisconsin,’ p. 238 (1899).
1853. A few hands in delicate silk and kid gloves rose gracefully up. The balance, and much the greater number, were permitted to retain their position.—Daily Morning Herald, March 22 (St. Louis).
1854. Those who had fathers, uncles, aunts, or other like dernier resorts, in Virginia, limped back with feathers moulted and crestfallen, to the old stamping ground, carrying the returned Californian’s fortune of ten thousand dollars—six bits in money, and the balance in experience.—J. G. Baldwin, ‘Flush Times,’ p. 94–5.
1855. [I left the State] with the balance of the Latter-day Saints, as they had previously killed many.—Brigham Young, Feb. 18: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ ii. 182.
1855. The balance of the day passed off pleasantly.—Oregon Weekly Times, July 7.
1857. Mark works hard for four or five months, and lays around loose the balance of the year.—S. H. Hammond, ‘Wild Northern Scenes,’ p. 196.
1865. We came up with the balance of the army at Spring Hill.—‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ vi. 86 (Richmond, Va.).
1869. The balance of the population are asleep within doors, or abroad tending goats in the plains and on the hill-sides.—Mark Twain, ‘The Innocents Abroad,’ ch. xlv.
1872. I was left at Fort Bridger with one man to watch for them. The balance went on to Green River, seventy miles further on…. We took a gun apiece, hid the balance of their arms, and stood guard over them.—‘Life of Bill Hickman,’ pp. 84, 85–6.
1882. I do not understand the balance of your remark.—Mr. Totten to Mr. Merrick, Star-Route trial: The Critic (Washington), May 16.
