Word.ws English Dictionary

hanging in the balance

hanging in the balance is the present participle and gerund of hang in the balance.

Meaning of hang in the balance

Verb

hang in the balance (third-person singular simple present hangs in the balance, present participle hanging in the balance, simple past and past participle hung in the balance)

  1. (idiomatic) To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future.
    • His life was left hanging in the balance after he was shot in the side.

Questions about hanging in the balance

What is hanging in the balance the present participle and gerund of?
Hanging in the balance is the present participle and gerund of hang in the balance.

Words near hanging in the balance in the dictionary

  1. hanging garden
  2. hanging gardens
  3. hanging heavy
  4. Hanging Houghton
  5. hanging in
  6. hanging in the balance
  7. hanging indent
  8. hanging indentation
  9. hanging indentations
  10. hanging indents
  11. hanging judge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hanging in the balance (page history and authors); hang in the balance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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