| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| ballast |
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| SYLLABICATION: | bal·last |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b l  st |
| NOUN: | 1. Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship or the gondola of a balloon to enhance stability. 2a. Coarse gravel or crushed rock laid to form a bed for roads or railroads. b. The gravel ingredient of concrete. 3. Something that gives stability, especially in character. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: bal·last·ed, bal·last·ing, bal·lasts
1. To stabilize or provide with ballast. 2. To fill (a railroad bed) with or as if with ballast. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Perhaps from Old Swedishor Old Danish barlast : bar, mere, bare; see bhoso- in Appendix I + last, load.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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