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🪨 Heavy support 💡 Current regulator 🧠 Mental support ⚓ To stabilize
to ballast

to ballast

1 7.8
To make a ship or track steady by adding heavy stones and gravel
  • verb
  • /ˈbæl.əst/
  • Specialized
translation icon : lastrar
  • The buoy is internally ballasted with 30 kilograms of cast lead poured inside the hull.
  • ballast a boat

Examples

  • Among them are a carbon in ash monitor, which won an R&D 100 Award in 1997, and a latent heat-ballasted gasifier, which has received international attention for its potential to expand the use of biomass resources. Ph.D. (1980), Michigan State University.

    Academic text (2002)

  • We ballast the balloon so it drifts at the same altitude as a high concentration of insects.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Plans called for the use of the high-rate ballasted Actiflo flocculation process.

    Academic text (2003)

  • I know a person in this position should right away ballast themselves with the reminder that our bonds to all other people are always and already the threads binding us to the destructible world.

    Blog text (20)

  • A while back, I heard something about a design flaw in the original W28 where, when they splashed the first boat, it was so under-ballasted that it nearly fell over!

    Blog text (20)

  • Here, thought is ballasted by the stressful work of "reflection"; thinking, Burney argues, takes time, and Evelina's actions are thereby characterized by a need for time.

    Academic text (2018)

  • It doth not ballast their judgments, but only addeth more sail to their ambition; and like the weapon of Goliath, such an instrument to give the fatal period to their honor's overthrow...

    Fiction book (1991)

  • He had to ballast the aircraft by adding weight to ensure a stable flight.

  • To improve stability, the team decided to ballast the boat before the race.

  • The engineer explained how to ballast the vessel to prevent it from capsizing in rough waters.

Synonyms

to buoy
vsto ballast
15 5.3

To keep someone or something floating and give them hope

stabilize physically by adding weight not by emotional support
to add ballast
vsto ballast
  • Specialized
7.1

To put extra weight into a boat or vehicle to make it more stable

focuses on stabilizing specifically by adding weight in vessels or aircraft
to buoy up
vsto ballast
5.0

Keep someone or something floating on water

stabilize by adding weight rather than keeping things afloat

Phrasal Verbs

to add ballast
  • Specialized
7.1

To put extra weight into a boat or vehicle to make it more stable

Compounds

ballast resistor
  • Specialized
7.3

An electrical part that keeps the flow of electricity steady when temperature changes

light ballast
  • Specialized
6.1

A device that helps fluorescent lights start and run

How Stabilizing

to anchor
51 3.4
to secure
347 3.3
to ballast
  • Specialized
1 7.8
to stabilize
  • US
197 3.7
to steady
41 3.4

Surface Forms

ballast infinitive
ballasted past
ballasted past participle
ballasting present participle
ballasts third person singular

Etymology

Ballast as a verb means to add that weight, so to 'stabilize' a ship, balloon, or track by putting heavy material into or under it.