scales

UK/skeɪlz/US/skeɪlz/

nounA2+2 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,924 of 15,258leans written

Scales are the machine that weighs things. Kitchen scales, bathroom scales, put it on the scales.

In British English scales is plural for the object; American English says a scale. Digital kitchen scales measure to the gram, which is why baking works better with them than with cups. Scales are also the small hard plates covering a fish or reptile, and in music a scale is a run of notes. Note tip the scales, meaning to decide a close matter; and the scales of justice.

Definitions of scales

1nounscalesA machine for weighing things.A2+
“The kitchen scales measure to about a gram.”
- Said"Put it on the scales for me; I never trust my eye with flour."
- WrittenThe scales in the shop were brass and older than the shopkeeper, and they were never wrong.
- UsedZero the scales with the empty bowl on them before you start adding.
- ContrastScales, not a spoon. A spoon measures roughly; scales tell you the grams. spoon →
- Not thisA ruler is not scales, though both measure. Scales are for weight, and weight only.
Patternkitchen / bathroom scales · weigh sth on the scales · a set of scales · tip the scales
synonyms: scale, weighing machine
2nounsmallThe small hard plates covering a fish or reptile.B1
“Scrape the scales off the fish before you cook it.”

scales is a weighing device or covering plates.

Also accepted in games: scale

Remember it

SCALES → the two plates of justice, in balance

Think of the statue outside a court: a woman holding two plates on a bar, perfectly in balance. Kitchen scales weigh the flour the same way.

Practised in In the Kitchen, Numbers & Measurement

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