Word.ws English Dictionary

move the dial

move the dial verb: to make a measurable difference.

Verb

move the dial (third-person singular simple present moves the dial, present participle moving the dial, simple past and past participle moved the dial)

  1. To make a measurable difference.
    • The results in Table 5.2 show that changing the size of the firm in the vignette from small, regional, national, or global does not move the dial for trust, therefore not supporting Hypothesis 2a that public trust in business will be affected by the firm's size.2014, Jared D. Harris, Brian Moriarty, Andrew C. Wicks, Public Trust in Business, page 140
    Synonyms:
    move the needle

Synonyms of move the dial

Forms of move the dial

third-person singular presentmoves the dial
present participlemoving the dial
past participlemoved the dial
pastmoved the dial
alternative formturn the dial

Origin of move the dial

By the same metaphor as move the needle.

Questions about move the dial

What does move the dial mean?
Move the dial means to make a measurable difference.
What part of speech is move the dial?
Move the dial is a verb.
What is the past tense of move the dial?
The past tense of move the dial is moved the dial.

Words near move the dial in the dictionary

  1. move sideways
  2. move someone to tears
  3. move south
  4. move the chains
  5. move the deckchairs on the Titanic
  6. move the dial
  7. move the goal posts
  8. move the goalposts
  9. move the needle
  10. move the problem
  11. move the yardsticks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: move the dial (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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