BALLAST • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ballast

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/bˈæləst/ Listen

noun

Ballast n.

1.

(Naut.) Any heavy substance, as stone, iron, etc., put into the hold to sink a vessel in the water to such a depth as to prevent capsizing.

2.

Any heavy matter put into the car of a balloon to give it steadiness.

3.

Gravel, broken stone, etc., laid in the bed of a railroad to make it firm and solid.

4.

The larger solids, as broken stone or gravel, used in making concrete.

5.

Fig.: That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security. "It (piety) is the right ballast of prosperity."

Ballast engine, a steam engine used in excavating and for digging and raising stones and gravel for ballast.

Ship in ballast, a ship carrying only ballast.

verb

Ballast v. t. (past & past part. ballasted; pres. part. ballasting)

1.

To steady, as a vessel, by putting heavy substances in the hold.

2.

To fill in, as the bed of a railroad, with gravel, stone, etc., in order to make it firm and solid.

3.

To keep steady; to steady, morally. "'T is charity must ballast the heart."

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Etymology of 'Ballast'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ballast" Quotes from Famous Books

... was not permitted to go forward; but I omit them, because I have no good authority for them. After this we saw a floating-machine, to be wrought with horses, for the towing of great ships both against wind and tide; and another for the raising of ballast, which, as unperforming engines, had the honour of being made, exposed, tried, and laid by before ...

— An Essay Upon Projects • Daniel Defoe

... exchanged amber out of the North against little wedges of iron and packets of beads in earthen pots. The pots he put under the decks, and the wedges of iron he laid on the bottom of the ship after he had cast out the stones and shingle which till then had been our ballast. Wine, too, he bought for lumps of sweet-smelling grey amber—a little morsel no bigger than a thumbnail purchased a cask of wine. But I speak ...

— Puck of Pook's Hill • Rudyard Kipling

... machines; or they are spread by plows, cultivators, and harrows. A few are introduced to grow for ornament or food, and afterwards spread as weeds. A number have been shipped to distant lands in the earth of ballast, which is often unloaded and reloaded at wharves where freight is changed. They are carried along the highway, strung along the towpath of canals, or are carried in the trucks or in the cars of railroads. They are imported and exported around the world in fleeces of wool. They float down irrigating ...

— Seed Dispersal • William J. Beal

... a light ballast of prejudice or sentiment can the profitable ship popularity be kept upright for a little voyage, and this, prevailingly, is all her cargo. But the wise writer, if he is able, as Scott, and Dickens, and Clemens were able, freights her more deeply. As for the ...

— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby

... nothing could be seen except the white, billowy masses of vapour shining in the sun; some difficulty was experienced in getting down, for the air currents were blowing upward and carried the balloon with them; the tree-tops finally caught them, but they escaped by throwing out ballast, and finally landed in an open place, and watched the dying balloon as it convulsively gasped out its last breath ...

— Stories of Inventors - The Adventures Of Inventors And Engineers • Russell Doubleday

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