ballast
/ˈbæl.əst/
ballast noun: heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
Noun
ballast (usually uncountable, plural ballasts)
- Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
- “Oh, for the-- how much did you waste on that little boondoggle?” “Well, it's not that so much as--” “Krieger.” “Well, I needed ballast, and what better to simulate bricks of cocaine than, you know, bricks of cocaine.”2014 March 24, Adam Reed, “On the Carpet” (18:15 from the start), in Archer, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Dr. Algernop Krieger (Lucky Yates)
- Anything that steadies emotion or the mind.
- Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads, or in making concrete; track ballast.
- A material, such as aggregate or precast concrete pavers, which employs its mass and the force of gravity to hold single-ply roof membranes in place.
- Loose stone or big gravel used to hold rails and tracks in place.
- device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)
- That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.
- With 73 minutes gone Rafael Márquez came on to add ballast at the back, appearing in his fifth World Cup aged 39 and with alleged links to drug trafficking, which he denies, on hold for now. And so they sat deep with a thin green line of five defenders ranged across their own penalty area as the...2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
- It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity.a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Profitableness of Godliness
Verb
ballast (third-person singular simple present ballasts, present participle ballasting, simple past and past participle ballasted)
- To stabilize or load a ship with ballast.
- To lay ballast on the bed of a railroad track.
- The task of a Railway Construction Company, R.E., is to lay and ballast the track; [...].1943 September and October, “Railway Construction and Operation at War Department Depots”, in Railway Magazine, page 262
- Although the track is ballasted, it does not prevent clouds of reddish dust from the laterite soil blowing about when the train is in motion; after a journey with the windows open a bath is a necessity!1948 September and October, W. S. Darby, “The Gold Coast Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 287
- To weigh down with a ballast.
- The noosance was […] that to make the umbrella effective he would have to carry abroad such weight to ballast it as would put the whole contraption out of action for carrying abroad at all.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 35
ballast meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ballast in Hindi
- बैलेस्ट, बैलास्ट
ballast in Tamil
- சரளை, நிலைப்புத் தன்மையைச் சீர்படுத்தவோ, நிலைப்புப் பாரம், அடிச்சுமை, உறுதிப்பொருள், உறுதிப்பண்பு
ballast in Marathi
- बॅलास्ट, बॅलेस्ट
ballast in Urdu
- ballast
- بوجھ bojh
More languagesFewer languages
- ballast in Bengali
- ভারসাম্য রক্ষাকারী ওজন
- ballast in Telugu
- తాపి tāpi
- ballast in Malayalam
- കലിൻറെയും മറ്റും അടിത്തട്ടിലിടുന്ന ഭാരം, അടിഭാരമിടുക
- ballast in Kannada
- ಬ್ಯಾಲಸ್ಟ್, ಬ್ಯಾಲೆಸ್ಟ್, ಬ್ಯಾಲಾಸ್ಟ್
- ballast in Punjabi
- ਬੈਲਸਟ, ਬਾਲਸਟ
- ballast in Gujarati
- બેલાસ્ટ, બેલેસ્ટ, બેલસ્ટ
- ballast in Odia
- ବାଲଷ୍ଟ, ବାଲାସ୍ଟ୍, ବାଲାଷ୍ଟ
- ballast in Nepali
- बलास्ट, बेलास्ट, ब्यालास्ट
- ballast in Tagalog
- tulakbahala
- ballast in Indonesian
- balas
- ballast in Thai
- อับเฉา àp-chǎo, บัลลาสต์ ban-làat
Examples of ballast in a sentence
- Each fluorescent troffer in the room contained three lamps and two ballasts.
- The submarine blew its main ballast tanks.
- The ship was ballasted up with sand and rocks.
Forms of ballast
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ballasts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ballasts |
| present participle | ballasting |
| past participle | ballasted |
| past | ballasted |
Origin of ballast
From Middle English bar (“bare”) + last (“load”).
Words formed from ballast
Phrases with ballast
Questions about ballast
- What does ballast mean?
- Ballast means heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
- What is ballast in Hindi?
- Ballast in Hindi is बैलेस्ट, बैलास्ट. See Ballast meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ballast?
- Ballast can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ballast?
- Ballast is pronounced /ˈbæl.əst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ballast?
- The plural of ballast is ballasts.
Words near ballast in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ballast (page history and authors); ballast (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ballast (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ballast (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); بوجھ (Urdu) (page history and authors); ballast (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తాపి (Telugu) (page history and authors); ballast (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ballast (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ballast (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ballast (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ballast (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ballast (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ballast.wav, en-us-ballast.ogg, en-au-ballast.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ballast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ballast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.