Vocabulary Word
Word: ballast
Definition: heavy substance used to add stability or weight; V. supply with ballast
Definition: heavy substance used to add stability or weight; V. supply with ballast
Sentences Containing 'ballast'
There were many things to be brought up from the beach and stored in the outhouse--as oars, nets, sails, cordage, spars, lobster-pots, bags of ballast, and the like; and though there was abundance of assistance rendered, there being not a pair of working hands on all that shore but would have laboured hard for Mr. Peggotty, and been well paid in being asked to do it, yet she persisted, all day long, in toiling under weights that she was quite unequal to, and fagging to and fro on all sorts of unnecessary errands.
Then, again, it would never do in plain sight of the world's riveted eyes, it would never do, I say, for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands; indeed, as token of his entire, buoyant self-command, he generally carries his hands in his trowsers' pockets; but perhaps being generally very large, heavy hands, he carries them there for ballast.
It may be objected that the ballast men might do this; that as fast as the hills are taken away they would gather together again, or that the watermen might do it.
To the first, I answer, that ballast men, instead of taking away from these hills, make holes in other places of the river, which is the reason so many young persons are drowned when swimming or bathing in the river.
Besides, it is a work for many hands, and of long continuance; so that ballast men do more harm than good.
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