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
-
With that kind of volume, even small per-load savings translate to real money over a year.—
Ryan Brennan
May 13,
Miami Herald,
13 May 2026
-
What to know about DIY laundry detergent Most recipes call for ½ to 1 cup per full load.—
Ryan Brennan
May 13,
Kansas City Star,
13 May 2026
Noun
-
The company’s chief executive said Sunday that inspections found no evidence of leaks from storage tanks, pipelines, loading facilities or nearby tankers.—
Emma Bussey,
FOXNews.com,
10 May 2026
-
The sensor delivered repeatable measurements with low hysteresis, meaning readings stayed consistent during loading and unloading cycles.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
9 May 2026
Noun
-
That creates a large gap for a high-speed, high-payload bomber for conventional strike and specialized missions.—
Christopher McFadden,
Interesting Engineering,
9 May 2026
-
A little more than three years since NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter ended its pioneering mission at Mars, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are designing next-generation Martian rotorcraft to carry heavier payloads longer distances through the planet’s low-density atmosphere.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
8 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
-
But despite assurances that the impact on businesses has been minimized, some groups still worried that the AI bill — despite its sections on workforce development and increasing AI knowledge — will ultimately create new burdens for businesses that could hamper innovation efforts.—
P.R. Lockhart,
Hartford Courant,
17 May 2026
-
Yet the car was also a burden, with high monthly interest payments, which put savage masculinity at odds with paternal liability.—
Weike Wang,
New Yorker,
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 18 May. 2026.
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