thumb on the scale

Meaning: (idiomatic)Anactofbiasor atacticforcheatingwhich creates a situation thatunfairlybenefitsone party involved in aninteraction.1982, Emory A. Griffin,Getting Together,→ISBN,page68:I'll try to give an impartial account without putting mythumb on the scale.1991, Deborah L. Rhode,Justice and Gender,→ISBN,page187:[E]ven to characterize these cases as affirmative action is misleading. What critics often present as athumb on the scalefor "less qualified" individuals may in fact reflect only necessary adjustments in the way the scale is calibrated.2009June 23, “China and US head for trade war”, inGuardian, UK, retrieved1 November 2015:Ron Kirk, the US trade representative, accused Beijing of putting a "giantthumb on the scale" by restricting exports of commodities including silicon, coke and zinc, to give Chinese manufacturers an unfair advantage.2014October 22, Derek Willis, “‘Soft on Crime’ TV Ads Affect Judges’ Decisions, Not Just Elections”, inNew York Times, retrieved1 November 2015:"The data show that the television campaign ads this money buys put athumb on the scalein criminal cases, and undermine the promise of equal justice."

Examples:

EN: Thing is worth his weight in them, even with his thumb on the scale.
ES: Dedos vale su peso en ellas, incluso con su pulgar en la balanza.
EN: That kid's old man can slip his thumb on the scale, nobody says nothing.
ES: EI padre de ese muchacho tiene suficiente dinero... para inclinar la balanza de la justicia a su favor.
EN: What I wanna hear is that you didn't put your thumb on the scale. No hint, no nod, no nudge?
ES: ¿Ningún gesto, indicio ningún empujón?
EN: You put your thumb on the scale.
ES: Tomaste ventaja.
EN: Uh, you put your thumb on the scale!
ES: ¡Ponías el pulgar en la balanza!
EN: I trust the system to decide guilt or innocence without putting my thumb on the scale.
ES: Confío en que el sistema decida la culpabilidad o la inocencia sin poner mi pulgar en la balanza.
EN: Seems like the prosecutor put his thumb on the scale.
ES: Parece que el acusador puso su dedo en la balanza.
EN: We all have a thumb on the scale, Anna.
ES: Todos tenemos un pulgar en la balanza, Anna.
EN: You put your thumb on the scale, now it's time to take it off.
ES: Puso su dedo sobre la balanza, es hora que lo saque.
EN: You're asking me to put my thumb on the scale for your illegal investigator, and I'm willing to do that, but I need something.
ES: Me estás pidiendo que ponga mi pulgar en la balanza para su investigador ilegal, y estoy dispuesto a hacer eso, pero necesito algo
EN: It's one thing to put all the evidence on table and let the truth shake out, it is another thing, to put your thumb on the scale.
ES: Una cosa es poner todas las pruebas en la mesa y dejar que la verdad sacuda, es otra cosa, para poner el pulgar en la escala.
EN: While there, I'll meet with Kristos Matthias, a Greek munitions contact who has a tendency to put his thumb on the scale, but on short notice, he's the only one who can readily supply us with the charges needed to blow the elevator.
ES: Mientras estoy allí, me reuniré con Kristos Matthias, un contacto de explosivos griego que tiene tendencia a la persuasión, pero con tan poco tiempo, es el único que de hecho puede suministrarnos las cargas necesarias para hacer volar el ascensor.
EN: Encourage her to stay the course, and let her know that, short of putting our thumb on the scale of the election, the U.S. has her back.
ES: Anímela a mantener el rumbo, y hágale saber que, menos meter las manos en las elecciones, los Estados Unidos la respaldan.
EN: Because you will not just be putting your thumb on the scale of the election.
ES: Porque no solo meterá sus manos en los resultados de las elecciones.
EN: Talk about putting your thumb on the scale.
ES: Hablando de meter las manos en las elecciones.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).