ballast

Etymology

From Middle English bar (“bare”) + last (“load”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbæl.əst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æləst

Noun

ballast (usually uncountable, plural ballasts)

1. (nautical) Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
   • 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):

     “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.”

2. (figurative) Anything that steadies emotion or the mind.
3. Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads, or in making concrete; track ballast.
4. (construction) 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.
5. (countable, electricity, electronics) device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)
6. (figurative) That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.
   • 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 from the original on 5 August 2019:

     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 game became a Mexican stand-off, attack versus defence.

   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Profitableness of Godliness:

     It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity.

Verb

ballast (third-person singular simple present ballasts, present participle ballasting, simple past and past participle ballasted)

1. To stabilize or load a ship with ballast.
2. To lay ballast on the bed of a railroad track.
   • 1943 September and October, “Railway Construction and Operation at War Department Depots”, in Railway Magazine, page 262:

     The task of a Railway Construction Company, R.E., is to lay and ballast the track; [...].

   • 1948 September and October, W. S. Darby, “The Gold Coast Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 287:

     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!

3. To weigh down with a ballast.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 35:

     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.

Gallery

• 
  Ballast provides a supporting bed for rail tracks
• 
  Several typical styles of magnetic ballasts for fluorescent lamps

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ballast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑˈlɑst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bal‧last
• Rhymes: -ɑst
• Homophone: Ballast

Noun

ballast m (plural ballasten)

1. (now chiefly uncountable) ballast (weights used in ships or aerostats)
2. (figurative, uncountable) baggage (something that hampers functioning)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.last/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

ballast m (plural ballasts)

1. (nautical) heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability
2. coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads

Further reading

• “ballast”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Etymology

From Middle Low German barlast.

Noun

ballast m (definite singular ballasten, indefinite plural ballaster, definite plural ballastene)

1. ballast

References

• “ballast” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From Middle Low German barlast.

Noun

ballast m (definite singular ballasten, indefinite plural ballastar, definite plural ballastane)
ballast f (definite singular ballasta, indefinite plural ballaster, definite plural ballastene)

1. ballast

References

• “ballast” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Noun

ballast c

1. Alternative form of barlast (“ballast”)

Adjective

ballast

1. predicative superlative degree of ball

References

• ballast in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ballast in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• ballast in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)