# thumb on the scale

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An act of bias or a tactic for cheating which creates a situation that unfairly benefits one party involved in an interaction.

## Etymology
An allusion to a butcher who cheats customers by surreptitiously using a thumb to apply extra pressure to the scale when weighing meat to calculate the price of a sale.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/thumb-on-the-scale