"hang in the balance" meaning in English

See hang in the balance in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-hang in the balance.ogg Forms: hangs in the balance [present, singular, third-person], hanging in the balance [participle, present], hung in the balance [participle, past], hung in the balance [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|hang<,,hung> in the balance}} hang in the balance (third-person singular simple present hangs in the balance, present participle hanging in the balance, simple past and past participle hung in the balance)
  1. (idiomatic) To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future. Tags: idiomatic Translations (to be in a precarious situation): olla vaakalaudalla (Finnish), essere in bilico (Italian), pender de un hilo (Spanish)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hangs in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hanging in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hung in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hung in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hang<,,hung> in the balance"
      },
      "expansion": "hang in the balance (third-person singular simple present hangs in the balance, present participle hanging in the balance, simple past and past participle hung in the balance)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Italian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His life was left hanging in the balance after he was shot in the side.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future."
      ],
      "id": "en-hang_in_the_balance-en-verb-D9Q35ajE",
      "links": [
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
          "word": "olla vaakalaudalla"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
          "word": "essere in bilico"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
          "word": "pender de un hilo"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hang in the balance.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hang in the balance"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hangs in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hanging in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hung in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hung in the balance",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hang<,,hung> in the balance"
      },
      "expansion": "hang in the balance (third-person singular simple present hangs in the balance, present participle hanging in the balance, simple past and past participle hung in the balance)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His life was left hanging in the balance after he was shot in the side.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hang in the balance.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-hang_in_the_balance.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
      "word": "olla vaakalaudalla"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
      "word": "essere in bilico"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to be in a precarious situation",
      "word": "pender de un hilo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hang in the balance"
}

Download raw JSONL data for hang in the balance meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.