sliding scale

Save This Word!

noun

a variable scale, especially of industrial costs, as wages, that may be adapted to changes in demand.

a wage scale varying with the selling price of goods produced, the cost of living, or profits.

a price scale, as of medical fees, in which prices vary according to the ability of individuals to pay.

a tariff scale varying according to changing prices.

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "IS" VS. "ARE"

"Is" it time for a new quiz? "Are" you ready? Then prove your excellent skills on using "is" vs. "are."

Question 1 of 7

IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of sliding scale

First recorded in 1700–10

Words nearby sliding scale

sliding fit, sliding flap, sliding friction, sliding hernia, sliding rule, sliding scale, sliding seat, sliding vector, slier, sliest, slieve

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use sliding scale in a sentence

In this case, the deal involved setting multiple KPIs around agreed-upon sales objectives and creating a sliding scale of comp for the agency.
Horizon Media agencies ply new ground with incentive-based deals tied to compensation|Michael Bürgi|July 30, 2021|Digiday
By that logic, Hand could live with lowered fastball velocity if it keeps moving on a sliding scale with his go-to breaking pitch.
Brad Hand thrived with lower velocity in 2020. With the Nats, he wants to bring back the heat.|Jesse Dougherty|January 26, 2021|Washington Post
Eligibility is determined on a sliding scale by annual income and family size, capped at $15,820 for a single person and $56,844 for a family with three or more children.
Hogan pitches $750 stimulus checks for Maryland’s poorest families|Erin Cox|January 12, 2021|Washington Post
Tuition is charged in relation to parent income by using a sliding scale, which Smiley says is part of their strategy in making sure Sora is an inclusive and diverse school.
With $2.7M in fresh funding, Sora hopes to bring virtual high school to the mainstream|Natasha Mascarenhas|October 2, 2020|TechCrunch

He suggested a blacklist of activities could be applied to dominant platforms with a sliding scale of penalties for non-compliance — up to and including the separation of some operations, according to the FT’s report.
Europe eyeing limits on how big tech can use data and bundle apps — reports|Natasha Lomas|September 30, 2020|TechCrunch
The most recent activity had a high point of 3.6 on the Richter Scale.
26 Earthquakes Later, Fracking’s Smoking Gun Is in Texas|James Joiner|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
So did Alexander Hamilton, and on a grander scale than your AmEx.
Forget the Resolutions; Try a Few Declarations|Kevin Bleyer|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Only two senators opposed the resolution, which the administration later claimed was the authority for a full-scale war.
The World’s Toughest Political Quiz|Jeff Greenfield|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The last time there was a raid of this scale was in 2001, when 52 men were arrested on Queen Boat, a floating disco on the Nile.
Sisi Is Persecuting, Prosecuting, and Publicly Shaming Egypt’s Gays|Bel Trew|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Some of the streets in this part of the town have seen large scale-destruction.
The Brothers Who Ambushed ISIS|Mohammed A. Salih|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
On a small scale map, in an office, you may make mole-hills of mountains; on the ground there's no escaping from its features.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton
Free discussion—never a very free thing in Russia—has now on any general scale become quite impossible.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
But consider what it will be when the system is adopted on a more comprehensive scale.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
If only India were pulling her weight for us on the same scale, we should by now be before the gates of Vienna.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton
Aber Jeder will grossartig spielen heutzutage (But everybody wants to play on a grand scale now-a-days).
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay

British Dictionary definitions for sliding scale

sliding scale

noun

a variable scale according to which specified wages, tariffs, prices, etc, fluctuate in response to changes in some other factor, standard, or conditions

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for sliding scale

sliding scale

A set of rates that change according to a mathematical formula. The income tax, for example, is levied on a sliding scale, with the rich paying a higher percentage than the poor.