balancing act

noun

plural balancing acts

: an attempt to handle or deal with two or more things (such as obligations) at one time so as to satisfy often competing requirements

"It's a difficult balancing act between celebrating the past and making room for the future."

—Jeffrey Brown

Vegas might be the starkest example of what the hospitality industry faces across the country: a delicate balancing act between bringing back jobs and revenue and keeping workers and customers safe from a virus that's killed more than 100,000 Americans.

—Dave Jamieson

It's a balancing act between appreciation, education and safety. Earlier this year, London city council voted to tighten up a parks bylaw that restricts the amount of food residents can feed to wild animals.

—Megan Stacey

Examples of balancing act in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Public health is a balancing act between risk and benefit, Limaye says. —Lauren Leffer, Popular Science, 30 Jan. 2025

Enforcing those provisions can represent a delicate balancing act for associations and their boards of directors, and taking legal action against owners should be considered only after all other reasonable enforcement measures have been exhausted. —Christyne D. Santisteban, Miami Herald, 29 Jan. 2025

Related article Putin’s ‘not doing so well,’ says Trump in unusually critical remarks on Kremlin leader That could set up a delicate balancing act for Beijing. —Simone McCarthy, CNN, 22 Jan. 2025

The deal marks a delicate balancing act for Netflix, because the company’s business model is centered on growing its streaming subscriptions. —Wendy Lee, Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above