unballasted

[ uhn-bal-uh-stid ]

adjective

1. not fitted with or carrying ballast.
2. not properly steadied or regulated.

Word History and Origins

Origin of unballasted¹

First recorded in 1635–45; un- ¹ + ballast ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

The C. & R.W. put on fifteen regular trains daily, and the little single track, unballasted and squirmy, was very unsafe to ride over and the crowded trains had to run very slowly on this account.

From Project Gutenberg

It laid nearly a hundred feet of unballasted track in the yards of Taggart Brothers’ Paper Mill and all Watertown went down in the chilly days at the beginning of March and venerated that little piece of track.

From Project Gutenberg

The Heron, with its great length of neck and legs, its lean unballasted body, large wings, and superabundance of plumage, is the least suited of birds to perch high; yet the structure of the feet renders it perfectly safe for the bird to do so.

From Project Gutenberg

There was danger of this, for many of the fathers who sent him pupils unballasted by the two pennies were near.

From Project Gutenberg

The boy voyages like an unballasted ship.

From Project Gutenberg