steelyard

[ steel-yahrd, stil-yerd ]

/ ˈstilˌyɑrd, ˈstɪl yərd /

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noun

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.

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Origin of steelyard

First recorded in 1630–40; steel + yard¹

Words nearby steelyard

steel wool, steelwork, steelworker, steelworks, steely, steelyard, Steen, steenbok, steenbras, steep, steepen

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

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 Verne
The steelyard was committed to the keeping of Ben Zoof, and the visitors prepared to quit the Hansa.
Off on a Comet|Jules Verne
And, 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 Verne
It 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 Ure

Holbein, however, met with a warm reception from the German merchants of the Steelyard, and painted portraits of many of them.
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools|Various

British Dictionary definitions for steelyard

steelyard

/ (ˈstiːlˌjɑːd) /

noun

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

Word Origin for steelyard

C17: from steel + yard 1 (in the archaic sense: a rod or pole)

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