turn the scale

verb

To decide or determine a balanced situation.

Similar
tip the scales
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Meanings

verbturn the scale (third-person singular simple present turns the scale, present participle turning the scale, simple past and past participle turned the scale)

present singular third person turns the scale · participle present turning the scale · participle past turned the scale · past turned the scale

  1. idiomaticTo decide or determine a balanced situation.

    Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and originality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary.

    1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 1”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

    Synonyms: tip the scales

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo decide or determine a balanced situation.

Similar
tip the scales
Also see
tip the scales
Cite this entry
APA

turn the scale. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20the%20scale

MLA

“turn the scale.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20the%20scale. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “turn the scale,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20the%20scale.

Source: turn the scale on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.