as in cargo
heavy material (such as rocks or water) that is put on a ship to make it steady or on a balloon to control its height in the air
—often used figuratively
A large amount of ballast kept the boat from capsizing. She provided the ballast the family needed in times of stress.
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Recent Examples of ballast
Ballplayers will quickly sniff out a manager who lacks the temperament and ballast for the job.
—
Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Apr. 2026
As Rose’s impoverished yet imperious mother Ruth, Parson’s dry deliveries offer great comic ballast to this ship of fools.
—Frank Rizzo, Variety, 13 Apr. 2026
With massive, deep-V hulls and ballast systems that add thousands of pounds, these boats are designed to displace large amounts of water and generate huge waves for wakeboarders and wakesurfers.
—Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 2 Apr. 2026
The railroad will also replace four grade crossing surfaces in Wethersfield, replace ties, switch ties with ballast and surfacing.
—Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ballast
Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Apr. 2026
As Rose’s impoverished yet imperious mother Ruth, Parson’s dry deliveries offer great comic ballast to this ship of fools.
—Frank Rizzo, Variety, 13 Apr. 2026
With massive, deep-V hulls and ballast systems that add thousands of pounds, these boats are designed to displace large amounts of water and generate huge waves for wakeboarders and wakesurfers.
—Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 2 Apr. 2026
The railroad will also replace four grade crossing surfaces in Wethersfield, replace ties, switch ties with ballast and surfacing.
—Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ballast
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ballast
Noun
-
But the ships carrying his crucial cargo are trapped 2,000 miles away by Iran’s stranglehold of one of the world’s most important waterways.—
Helen Regan,
CNN Money,
16 May 2026
-
Most are eVTOL aircraft, powered by propellers and designed to move people or cargo above congested roads with far less ground infrastructure than traditional aviation requires.—
Bernard Marr,
Forbes.com,
15 May 2026
Noun
-
The long-simmering feud with Britain came to a boil at the end of 1773, when a group of Bostonians dressed up as Indians and dumped a large freight of British tea into the harbor.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 May 2026
-
Rail freight, a faster and cheaper alternative, was blocked after Zheng’s smart helmets were classified as sensitive dual-use goods, given the active conflict zones along the route.—
Anniek Bao,
CNBC,
13 May 2026
Noun
-
Levi’s went on a prolific streak of collaborations by releasing three collections with Nike and Jordan Brand from last July through January, and during that time and onward denim has been popping up on loads more in-line releases under the Nike umbrella.—
Ian Servantes,
Footwear News,
20 May 2026
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The company’s earlier Flex 1 model already demonstrated strong hardware performance with 25 degrees of freedom, a 380-gram weight, 66 pounds (30 kilograms) load capacity, and 20-newton fingertip force.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
20 May 2026
Noun
-
Just a five-minute walk from the loading zone is the entrance to the fissure, an unassuming sliver of water that snakes between the dark volcanic rocks.—
Carinne Geil Botta,
Travel + Leisure,
16 May 2026
-
Modern Perspectives on Laundry Sorting With the growing popularity of large-capacity front-loading washers in the late 1990s, consumers welcomed the possibility of washing all of the dirty laundry in the hamper at the same time.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
15 May 2026
Noun
-
This difference may appear modest, but in space missions, where every kilogram launched into orbit is expensive, even small reductions can translate into extra payload capacity, lower launch costs, or more operational flexibility.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
17 May 2026
-
Aimed at the defense market, the fuels could allow vehicles to fly farther while carrying heavier payloads.—
David Szondy
May 17,
New Atlas,
17 May 2026
Noun
-
Cargill built a large soybean-lading facility at Santarem, some 500 miles up the Amazon.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
4 Jan. 2026
-
One example can be as simple as shipments that are missing bills of lading or origin documents.—
Forbes,
Forbes,
1 June 2021
Noun
-
In a region where Malaysia’s fuel subsidies have exploded to $819 million a month, Japan’s game plan has become a burden—not an insurance policy or a strategic shield.—
Ken Silverstein,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2026
-
The sandwich generation has been shouldering a heavy financial burden for far too long.—
Mary Moreland,
Fortune,
17 May 2026
Noun
-
As if moving his muscular deadweight weren’t a task itself for the two girls, there’s a point where Jinx falls onto Margo and pins her underwater in the tub.—
Dessi Gomez,
Deadline,
13 May 2026
-
By integrating turbine and ramjet technologies, a concept dating back to the end of World War II, the scientists removed the inactive deadweight and simplified the model.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ballast.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ballast. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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