turn the scale
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Verb
- (idiomatic) To turn to one side a balanced situation.
- 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 1
- Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and originality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary.
- 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 1