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nautical. any heavy material carried temporarily or permanently in a vessel to provide desired draft and stability.
aeronautics. something heavy, as bags of sand, placed in the car of a balloon for control of alt-tude and, less often, of att-tude, or placed in an aircraft to control the position of the center of gravity.
anything that gives mental, moral, or political stability or steadiness:
the ballast of a steady income.
gravel, broken stone, slag, etc., placed between and under the ties of a railroad to give stability, provide drainage, and distribute loads.
electricity.

also called ballast resistor. a device, often a resistor, that maintains the current in a circuit at a constant value by varying its resistance in order to counteract changes in voltage.
a device that maintains the current through a fluorescent or mercury lamp at the desired constant value, sometimes also providing the necessary starting voltage and current.

to furnish with ballast:
to ballast a ship.
to give steadiness to; keep steady:
parental responsibilities that ballast a person.
in ballast, nautical. carrying only ballast; carrying no cargo.
historical examples

the track is ballasted with nine hundredweight of limestone chips, and the gauge is six inches.
the harmsworth magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, no. 2 various

she is ballasted with utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge.
moby d-ck; or the whale herman melville

the car was at once ballasted, and kennedy, closely followed by joe, leaped out.
five weeks in a balloon jules verne

the splash was ballasted with ten fifty-sixes, each with a ring for lifting it.
breaking away oliver optic

some indiaman, ballasted with guilders, you have heard of in sh-r-.
captain kyd, vol. ii joseph holt ingraham

it is ballasted with humour, too; and has a charming whimsicality.
studies of contemporary poets mary c. sturgeon

then sometime later the road-bed is ballasted and the line made ready for heavy operation.
the modern railroad edward hungerford

let us be ballasted with grace, that we be not blown over, and that we stagger not.
letters of samuel rutherford samuel rutherford

she ballasted the boat, and for bompard she was something to lean against.
the beach of dreams h. de vere stacpoole

the sleepers were not ballasted and were anything but level.
across america by motor-cycle c. k. shepherd

noun
any dense heavy material, such as lead or iron pigs, used to stabilize a vessel, esp one that is not carrying cargo
crushed rock, broken stone, etc, used for the foundation of a road or railway track
co-rs- aggregate of sandy gravel, used in making concrete
anything that provides stability or weight
(electronics) a device for maintaining the current in a circuit
verb (transitive)
to give stability or weight to
n.

“heavy material used to steady a ship,” 1520s, from middle english bar “bare” (see bare; in this case “mere”) + last “a load, burden,” or borrowed from identical terms in north sea germanic and scandinavian (cf. old danish barlast, 14c.). “mere” because not carried for commercial purposes. dutch balg-last “ballast,” literally “belly-load,” is a folk-etymology corruption.