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A small metal ring; a small collar fastened on an arbor; as, the collet on the balance arbor of a watch; a small socket on a stem, for holding a drill.

To be equivalent in value or effect to; to counterbalance; to make up for; to make amends for. The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day. Bacon. The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries. Prior.

escription, etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation. Compensation balance, or Compensated balance, a kind of balance wheel for a timepiece. The rim is usually made of two different expansibility under changes of temperature, so arranged as to counteract each other and preserve uniformity of move…

A prefix meaning contrary, opposite, in opposition; as, counteract, counterbalance, countercheck. See Counter, adv. & a.

To act against with equal weight; to equal in weght; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance. Weigts, counterpoising one another. Sir K. Digby.

Counterbalance; balance, as of one scale against another. [Obs.] Howell.

fect; to thwart or overcome by such action; to furnish an equivalent to or for; to counterbalance; to compensate. Upon balancing the account, the profit at last will hardly countervail the inconveniences that go allong with it. L'Estrange.

To vote in opposition ti; to balance or overcome by viting; to outvote. Dr. J. Scott.

To weigh against; to counterbalance.

be sufficient for; to comprehend, include, or embrace; to account for or solve; to counterbalance; as, a mortgage which fully covers a sum loaned on it; a law which covers all possible cases of a crime; receipts than do not cover expenses.

on; a wily device; fraud. Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. Amos viii. 5. Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. Milton. Yet still we hug the dear deceit. N. Cotton.

state of being affected by slight causes; sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance.

stened to two sticks, a small somewhat spool- shaped object (called the diabolo) so as to balance it on a string, toss it in the air and catch it, etc.

An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillæ) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvæ (called mag…

The place in court where a criminal or accused person stands. Balance dock, a kind of floating dock which is kept level by pumping water out of, or letting it into, the compartments of side chambers. -- Dry dock, a dock from which the water may be shut or pumped out, especially, one in the form of a chamber having wal…

measuring the quantity of dew on the surface of a body in the open air. It consists of a balance, having a plate at one end to receive the dew, and at the other a weight protected from the deposit of dew.

icles. -- Dry wine, that in which the saccharine matter and fermentation were so exactly balanced, that they have wholly neutralized each other, and no sweetness is perceptible; -- opposed to sweet wine, in which the saccharine matter is in excess.

instrument which indicates the presence of electricity (usually called an electroscope). Balance electrometer. See under Balance.

ss or by association; a figurative representation; a typical designation; a symbol; as, a balance is an emblem of justice; a scepter, the emblem of sovereignty or power; a circle, the emblem of eternity. "His cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek." Shak.

Evenly balanced; not unduly inclining to either side; characterized by fairness; unbiased; impartial; equitable; just. Are not my ways equal Ezek. xviii. 29. Thee, O Jove, no equal judge I deem. Spenser. Nor think it equal to answer deliberate reason with sudden heat and noise. Milton.