ballast

Plural: ballasts

Noun

• any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship
• coarse gravel laid to form a bed for streets and railroads
• an attribute that tends to give stability in character and morals; something that steadies the mind or feelings
• a resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations)
• an electrical device for starting and regulating fluorescent and discharge lamps
• Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
• 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.
• 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.

Verb

Verb Forms: ballasted, ballasting, ballasts

• To give stability by adding weight.
• make steady with a ballast
• To stabilize or load a ship with ballast.
• To lay ballast on the bed of a railroad track.
• To weigh down with a ballast.

Examples

• He used a few low-scoring words to ballast his score.

Synonyms

ballast resistor, barretter, light ballast

Anagrams of ballast