ballast, glamorize upper-crust social set

• They'll never get that ballast of unearned privilege into space.

glamorize upper-crust social set

A hit cable show, Gossip Girl, is based on a popular series of books that glamorize the dirty little secrets in the lives of an elitist group of teens in New York's upper-crust social set. Hedda Hopper, one of America's first celebrity gossip columnists, was born on this date in 1885.


glam·or·ize glam·our·ize (glăm'ə-rīz') 
also
tr.v., -ized, also -ized, -iz·ing, -iz·ing, -iz·es, -iz·es.

1. To make glamorous: tried to glamorize the bathroom with expensive fixtures.
2. To treat or portray in a romantic manner; idealize or glorify: a show that glamorizes police work.

glamorization glam'or·i·za'tion (-ər-ĭ-zā'shən) n.
glamorizer glam'or·iz'er n.


upper-crust
n. Informal
The highest social class or group.

upper-crust up'per-crust' (ŭp'ər-krŭst') adj.

 ballast 

Pronunciation: /ˈbaləst/

Definition of ballast in English:

noun

[MASS NOUN]

1Heavy material, such as gravel, sand, or iron, placed in the bilge of a ship to ensure its stability:the hull had insufficient ballast

1.1A heavy substance carried in an airship or on a hot-air balloon to stabilize it and jettisoned when greateraltitude is required:a forty kilo sandbag was used as ballast

1.2Something providing stability or substance:the film is an entertaining comedy with some serious ideas thrown in for ballast

2Gravel or coarse stone used to form the bed of arailway track or the substratum of a road:a thick layer of railway ballast

2.1A mixture of coarse and fine aggregate for makingconcrete.

3[COUNT NOUN] A passive component used in an electric circuit to moderate changes in current:ballasts are permanently wired into existing fixtures[AS MODIFIER]: ballast resistors

verb

[WITH OBJECT]Back to top  

1Give stability to (a ship) by putting a heavy substance in its bilge:the vessel has been ballasted to give the necessaryfloating stabilityfigurative people insufficiently ballasted with factualinformation

2Form (the bed of a railway line or the substratum of aroad) with gravel or coarse stone:the track was laid with rails and ballasted with earth

Phrases

in ballast

1

(Of a ship) laden only with ballast.

EXAMPLE SENTENCES

Origin

Mid 16th century: probably of Low German orScandinavian origin.

Words that rhyme wi

“The first ship to reach Europe from the newly conquered coast of Mexico, the little Santa María had 'so much gold on board that there was no other ballast than gold,' or so it was reported to King Charles. At that moment, the modern Western world was born and globalization began.” According to Robert Goodwin, research fellow at University College London, 16th-century Spain was the centre of the worldhttp://econ.st/1eq3xDy

Robert Goodwin on 16th-century Spain

ROBERT GOODWIN is research fellow at University College London and author of “Crossing the Continent 1527-1540” (2009) and “Spain: The Centre of the World,...

ECON.ST