ballast

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.

   ““Oh, for the-- how much did you waste on that little boondoggle?” “Well, it's not that so much as--” “Krieger.” “Well, I needed ballast, and what better to simulate bricks of cocaine than, you know, bricks of cocaine.””

2. (figuratively, uncountable, usually)Anything that steadies emotion or the mind.
3. (uncountable, usually)Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads, or in making concrete; track ballast.
4. (uncountable, usually)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. (uncountable, usually)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.
6. (countable, usually)device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)
7. (figuratively, uncountable, usually)That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.

   “With 73 minutes gone Rafael Márquez came on to add ballast at the back, appearing in his fifth World Cup aged 39 and with alleged links to drug trafficking, which he denies, on hold for now. And so they sat deep with a thin green line of five defenders ranged across their own penalty area as the game became a Mexican stand-off, attack versus defence.”

   “It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity.”

verb

1. (transitive)To stabilize or load a ship with ballast.
2. (transitive)To lay ballast on the bed of a railroad track.

   “The task of a Railway Construction Company, R.E., is to lay and ballast the track; [...].”

   “Although the track is ballasted, it does not prevent clouds of reddish dust from the laterite soil blowing about when the train is in motion; after a journey with the windows open a bath is a necessity!”

3. (transitive)To weigh down with a ballast.

   “The noosance was […] that to make the umbrella effective he would have to carry abroad such weight to ballast it as would put the whole contraption out of action for carrying abroad at all.”