WordDisk
  • Reading
    • Shortcuts
      •   Home
      •   All Articles
      •   Read from Another Site
      Sources
      • Wikipedia
      • Simple Wikipedia
      • VOA Learning English
      • Futurity
      • The Conversation
      • MIT News
      • Harvard Gazette
      • Cambridge News
      • YDS/YÖKDİL Passages
      Topics
      • Technology
      • Engineering
      • Business
      • Economics
      • Human
      • Health
      • Energy
      • Biology
      • Nature
      • Space
  •  Log in
  •  Sign up
3.21
History
Add

ballast noun [ ˈbaləst ]

• heavy material, such as gravel, sand, or iron, placed in the bilge of a ship to ensure its stability.
• "the hull had insufficient ballast"
• gravel or coarse stone used to form the bed of a railway track or the substratum of a road.
• "a thick layer of railway ballast"
• a passive component used in an electric circuit to moderate changes in current.
• "ballasts are permanently wired into existing fixtures"

ballast verb

• give stability to (a ship) by putting a heavy substance in its bilge.
• "the vessel has been ballasted to give the necessary floating stability"
• form (the bed of a railway line or the substratum of a road) with gravel or coarse stone.
• "the track was laid with rails and ballasted with earth"
Origin: mid 16th century: probably of Low German or Scandinavian origin.

in ballast

• (of a ship) laden only with ballast.

in ballast

• (of a ship) laden only with ballast.



2025 WordDisk