Search the Dictionary

or; that which guides or governs the course. For rhyme the rudder is of verses. Hudibras. Balance rudder (Naut.), a rudder pivoted near the middle instead of at the edge, -- common on sharpies. -- Drop rudder (Naut.), a rudder extending below the keel so as to be more effective in steering. -- Rudder chain (Naut.), o…

or spirits, under the pressure of care, trouble, doubt, or the like; to be unsettled or unbalanced. [R.] the mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. Shak.

The dish of a balance; hence, the balance itself; an instrument or machine for weighing; as, to turn the scale; -- chiefly used in the plural when applied to the whole instrument or apparatus for weighing. Also used figuratively. Long time in even scale The battle hung. Milton. The scales are turned; her kindness weigh…

The lever or beam of a balance; the lever of a platform scale, to which the poise for weighing is applied.

l the parts arranged and placed in juxtaposition. Smart. -- To quit scores, to settle or balance accounts; to render an equivalent; to make compensation. Does not the earth quit scores with all the elements in the noble fruits that issue from it South.

A play among children in which they are seated upon the opposite ends of a plank which is balanced in the middle, and move alternately up and down.

Suspended by one's self or by itself; balanced. Southey.

ch makes it indicate very slight changes of condition; delicacy; as, the sensibility of a balance, or of a thermometer.

To adjust, as accounts; to liquidate; to balance; as, to settle an account.

ul and sonorous in the expression. Addison. There is nothing of the artificial Johnsonian balance in his style. It is as often marked by a pregnant brevity as by a sonorous amplitude. E. Everett.

hus bound (as a ledger or other account or blank book) spring up and lie flat. -- Spring balance, a contrivance for measuring weight or force by the elasticity of a spiral spring of steel. -- Spring beam, a beam that supports the side of a paddle box. See Paddle beam, under Paddle, n. -- Spring beauty. (a) (Bot.) An…

Even; leaving no balance; as, to make or leave the accounts square.

A form of balance in which the body to be weighed is suspended from the shorter arm of a lever, which turns on a fulcrum, and a counterpoise is caused to slide upon the longer arm to produce equilibrium, its place upon this arm (which is notched or graduated) indicating the weight; a Roman balance; -- very commonly use…

only in past participle. "Well struck in years." Shak. To strike an attitude, To strike a balance. See under Attitude, and Balance. -- To strike a jury (Law), to constitute a special jury ordered by a court, by each party striking out a certain number of names from a prepared list of jurors, so as to reduce it to the…

e verdict of a jury. Ten days the prophet in suspense remained. Denham. Upon the ticklish balance of suspense. Cowper.

suspend a suit. -- Points of suspension (Mech.), the points, as in the axis or beam of a balance, at which the weights act, or from which they are suspended. -- Suspension bridge, a bridge supported by chains, ropes, or wires, which usually pass over high piers or columns at each end, and are secured in the ground be…

To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline. The balance sways on our part. Bacon.

plow. -- Swing wheel. (a) The scape-wheel in a clock, which drives the pendulum. (b) The balance of a watch.

rity and power. He [the ruler] beareth not the sword in vain. Rom. xiii. 4. She quits the balance, and resigns the sword. Dryden.

To move up and down on the ends of a balanced plank, or the like, as children do for sport; to seesaw; to titter; to titter- totter. [U. S.] [The bobolink] alit upon the flower, and teetered up and down. H. W. Beecher.