ballast

See also Ballast

English

WOTD – 4 October 2007    

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (RP, US) IPA: /ˈbæl.əst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æləst

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.
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, electronics) device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g.in a tube lamp supply circuit)

• 

  Ballast provides a supporting bed for rail tracks

• 

  Several typical styles of magnetic ballasts for fluorescent lamps

Translations

heavy material placed in the hold of a vessel

• Albanian: balast (sq)
• Bulgarian: баласт (bg) (balast)
• Czech: zátěž (cs) f
• Danish: ballast (da)
• Dutch: ballast (nl) m
• Esperanto: balasto (eo)
• Estonian: ballast (et)
• Finnish: painolasti (fi)
• French: lest (fr) m
• German: Ballast (de) m

• Greek: σαβούρα (el) (savoura) f , έρμα (el) (érma) n 
• Greenlandic: ballasti (kl)
• Italian: zavorra (it) f
• Maori: taowaka (mi), pēhanga kowhatu (mi)
• Norwegian: ballast (no) m
• Polish: balast (pl) m
• Portuguese: lastro (pt) m
• Romanian: balast (ro), lest (ro)
• Russian: балласт (ru) (ballást) m 
• Serbo-Croatian: balast (sh) m
• Spanish: lastre (es) m

anything that steadies emotion or mind

• Spanish: lastre (es) m

material laid to form a bed for a road

• Albanian: balast (sq)
• Bulgarian: баластра (bg) (balastra)
• Dutch: bedding (nl) f, ballastbed (nl) n
• Esperanto: balasto (eo)
• Estonian: ballast (et)
• Finnish: kantava materiaali

• German: Bettung (de) f, Schotter (de) m
• Italian: massicciata (it) f
• Norwegian: ballast m (for railroads), fundament n
• Portuguese: balastro (pt) m
• Spanish: balastro (es) m, balasto (es) m

electronics

• Bulgarian: товар (bg) (tovar)
• Dutch: ballast (nl) m
• Estonian: ballast (et)
• Finnish: kuristin (fi)

• French: ballast (fr) m
• Italian: regolatore (it) m
• Romanian: balast (ro)
• Spanish: balasto (es) m, balastra (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: balasto
• Spanish: balasto m, balastro m

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.

Translations

to stabilize a ship with ballast

• Albanian: balastoj
• Estonian: ballastima (et)
• Finnish: tasapainottaa (fi)
• French: ballaster (fr)

• German: ballasten (de)
• Norwegian: ballaste (no)
• Spanish: lastrar (es)

to lay ballast on the bed of a railway track

• Albanian: balastoj
• Estonian: ballastima (et)

• Finnish: sepelöidä (fi)
• German: beschottern (de)

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio (Fr)

  (file)

Noun

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.

Swedish

Adjective

ballast

1. superlative predicative form of ball.