Word.ws English Dictionary

tipping the scales

tipping the scales is the present participle and gerund of tip the scales.

Meaning of tip the scales

Verb

tip the scales (third-person singular simple present tips the scales, present participle tipping the scales, simple past and past participle tipped the scales)

  1. (idiomatic) To turn to one side of a balanced situation.
    • "But an uprising in the central provinces would tip the scales for us!" exclaimed Conan.1935-1936, Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the Dragon
    Synonyms:
    turn the scale

Questions about tipping the scales

What is tipping the scales the present participle and gerund of?
Tipping the scales is the present participle and gerund of tip the scales.

Words near tipping the scales in the dictionary

  1. tipping the balance
  2. tipping the daddle
  3. tipping the double
  4. tipping the gaff
  5. tipping the scale
  6. tipping the scales
  7. tipping the wink
  8. tipping up
  9. tipping-point state
  10. tipping-point states
  11. tippings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tipping the scales (page history and authors); tip the scales (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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Cite this entry: “tipping the scales.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tipping_the_scales. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.