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What is "sliding scale"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sliding scale
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Its correlative, a sliding scale of hours to meet unemployment, is now becoming timely.
▪ So it was that the trade emulated this sliding scale system for the populace at large.
▪ The disparity between solar noon and mean noon widens and narrows as the seasons change, on a sliding scale.
▪ The fee is on a sliding scale according to value, and nobody who appraises for us is paid for it.
▪ The rest of the kitty will be divided among the other 21 clubs on a sliding scale in units of £35,000.
▪ The Trotskyist movement has long advocated a sliding scale of wages to meet the rising cost of living.
▪ What was the going rate, his professional self asked, and was it adjusted to a sliding scale?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sliding scale

Sliding \Slid"ing\, a.

  1. That slides or slips; gliding; moving smoothly.

  2. Slippery; elusory. [Obs.] That sliding science hath me made so bare. --Chaucer. Sliding friction (Mech.), the resistance one body meets with in sliding along the surface of another, as distinguished from rolling friction. Sliding gunter (Naut.), a topmast arranged with metallic fittings so as to be hoisted and lowered by means of halyards. Sliding keel (Naut), a movable keel, similar to a centeboard. Sliding pair. (Mech.) See the Note under Pair, n., 7. Sliding rule. Same as Slide rule, under Slide, n. Sliding scale.

    1. A scale for raising or lowering imposts in proportion to the fall or rise of prices.

    2. A variable scale of wages or of prices.

    3. A slide rule.

      Sliding ways (Naut.), the timber guides used in launching a vessel.

Wiktionary
sliding scale

n. A pricing scheme for a product or service were a price range is set and the customer is charged based on where their financial resources fall within the price range

WordNet
sliding scale

n. a wage scale that fluctuates in response to the cost-of-living index