steelyard
a portable balance with two unequal arms, the longer one having a movable counterpoise and the shorter one bearing a hook or the like for holding the object to be weighed.
Origin of steelyard
1Words Nearby steelyard
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use steelyard in a sentence
Hardly a minute elapsed before the Jew was back again, carrying his precious steelyard with ostentatious care.
Off on a Comet | Jules VerneThe steelyard was committed to the keeping of Ben Zoof, and the visitors prepared to quit the Hansa.
Off on a Comet | Jules VerneAnd, moaning and groaning, the miserable man was driven to make up the full weight as registered by his own steelyard.
Off on a Comet | Jules VerneIt has a conical valve pressed with a spiral spring, of any desired force, estimated by a steelyard.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines | Andrew UreHolbein, however, met with a warm reception from the German merchants of the steelyard, and painted portraits of many of them.
British Dictionary definitions for steelyard
/ (ˈstiːlˌjɑːd) /
a portable balance consisting of a pivoted bar with two unequal arms. The load is suspended from the shorter one and the bar is returned to the horizontal by adding weights to the longer one
Origin of steelyard
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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