Definitions for ballast

• Definition
• Anagrams (129)

ballast bal·last

Spelling: [bal-uh st]

IPA: /ˈbæl əst/

Ballast is a 7 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 9 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 12 points.

You can make 129 anagrams from letters in ballast (aabllst).

Definitions for ballast

noun

1. Nautical. any heavy material carried temporarily or permanently in a vessel to provide desired draft and stability.
2. Aeronautics. something heavy, as bags of sand, placed in the car of a balloon for control of altitude and, less often, of attitude, or placed in an aircraft to control the position of the center of gravity.
3. anything that gives mental, moral, or political stability or steadiness:
4. gravel, broken stone, slag, etc., placed between and under the ties of a railroad to give stability, provide drainage, and distribute loads.
5. Electricity. Also called ballast resistor. a device, often a resistor, that maintains the current in a circuit at a constant value by varying its resistance in order to counteract changes in voltage. a device that maintains the current through a fluorescent or mercury lamp at the desired constant value, sometimes also providing the necessary starting voltage and current.

Idioms

1. in ballast, Nautical. carrying only ballast; carrying no cargo.

verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with ballast:
2. to give steadiness to; keep steady:

Origin of ballast

1450-1500; Middle Low German, perhaps ultimately Scandinavian; compare Old Danish, Old Swedish barlast, equivalent to bar bare¹ + last load; see Examples for ballast

The vessel was in ballast, and had brought money to make her purchases with.

Will you take me down to the Point when you get the ballast?

The great fault in Zinzendorf's character was lack of ballast.

Four or five of these busts had been struck into the launch as ballast.

You are in the same boat, and we must divide the ballast a little more equally.'

It is valuable as a building stone and as ballast for roadbeds and foundations.

But are the ballast masses, so critical for the Apollo entry guidance to work properly, really gone as they should be?

It is a tempest of fancies, and the only ballast I know is a respect to the present hour.

They got into the car, and the bags of ballast were tossed overboard.

A gran' thing in a vessel, a bit o' ballast—like religion in a body.