ballast

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See also: Ballast

English

WOTD – 4 October 2007

Etymology

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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

Pronunciation

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.
  2. (figuratively) 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.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

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.

Derived terms

Translations

Gallery

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

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ballast.

Pronunciation

Noun

ballast m (plural ballasten)

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

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: ballas
  • → Indonesian: balas
  • → Papiamentu: balaster, balastu

French

Pronunciation

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

Descendants

Further reading

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology

From Middle Low German barlast.

Noun

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

  1. ballast

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

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

Swedish

Noun

ballast c

  1. Alternative form of barlast (“ballast”)

Declension

Declension of ballast 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative ballast ballasten ballaster ballasterna
Genitive ballasts ballastens ballasters ballasternas

Adjective

ballast

  1. predicative superlative degree of ball

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia