SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
ballast
noun
Weight carried to give a vessel stability or control its balance.
Quick word lookup
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Read this word in Dave's Corner
The Bell That Rang at Low Tide · paragraph 3Weight carried to give a vessel stability or control its balance.
No close substitute is listed for this sense. The expressions below help explain the idea.
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Return to topCHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See ballast in use
The empty ferry carried water as ballast on its return trip.
With no passengers aboard, the little boat needed ballast to sit steadily in the water.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license