1. lit. Weighing, poising; acrobatic posturing.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 162. The Arts of Alchymy and Ballancing.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 76. The wheels and springs or ballancings of Nature.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. V. 190. Tumbling, and balancing … exhibited by the gleemen.
1883. Payn, Thicker than W., I. 181. Beginning to lose confidence in his balancing pole upon this very high rope.
2. fig. Pondering, consideration, critical comparison.
1666. Tillotson, Rule Faith, II. iii. § 10. Exact balancing of every particular word.
1739. Hume, Hum. Nat., II. ii. (1874), I. 339. Objections and replies, and ballancing of arguments.
3. Hesitation between opposing considerations; uncertainty.
1598. Bacon, Faction, Ess. (Arb.), 80. When Matters haue stucke long in ballancing.
1817. Foster, Life & Corr. (1846), I. cv. 465. I am in a great state of doubt and balancing.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 189/1. Balancings between Torquay and Madeira.
4. The placing of one thing over against another as in a balance, compensation; reduction to equilibrium, proportionate adjustment.
1612. Travers, Supplic., in Hooker, Eccl. Pol., II. 656. So unequal a balancing of faults and punishments.
1647. W. Browne, Polex., ¶ iiij a. Knowing not how to reward an action that was beyond all ballancing.
1860. Mill, Repr. Govt. (1865), 87/2. This balancing of evil by evil.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Feb., 4/1. There was [no] finer balancing of mental and moral gifts than in Mr. Cobden.
5. Comparison, or equalization, of the credit and debit totals of an account.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. i. § 5. 41. Ballancing, Evening of Accounts.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., II. 10. By such a Ballancing of Accounts.
1803. Edin. Rev., II. 16. The balancing system.
6. Oscillation about a position of equilibrium.
1868. Lockyer, Heavens, 457. A top … undergoes also a balancing of its axis of figure or rotation, analogous to the oscillations of the Earth.
