compensating balance

noun

Also compensated balance, compensation balance. a balance wheel in a timepiece, designed to compensate for variations in tension in the hair spring caused by changes in temperature.
Banking. a deposit balance that is required to be left on deposit by a company to maintain or guarantee credit.

Origin of compensating balance

First recorded in 1795–1805

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Life works upon a compensating balance, and the happiness we gain in one direction we lose in another.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | Jerome K. Jerome
Except for the fact that he had tried to do right, he could see no compensating balance.
The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him | Paul Leicester Ford
To lessen this shock, a compensating balance was designed, but which is not now in use.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 455, September 20, 1884 | Various
It forms, in a sort, or is to form, the compensating balance-wheel of the successful working machinery of aggregate America.
Complete Prose Works | Walt Whitman

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