kent·ledge

(kĕnt′lĭj)

n. Nautical

Pig iron used as permanent ballast.

[Origin unknown.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

kentledge

(ˈkɛntlɪdʒ)

(Nautical Terms) nautical scrap metal used as ballast in a vessel

[C17: perhaps from Old French quintelage ballast, from quintal hundredweight, ultimately from Arabic qintār; see kantar]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

kent•ledge

(ˈkɛnt lɪdʒ)

n.

scrap metal or pig iron used as ballast.

[1600–10; orig. uncertain]

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

She is ballasted with utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge. She carries years' water in her.

View in context

KENTLEDGE A Fine soda-ash B Obsolete bugle C Pig-iron used as ship's ballast who am I?

Time out extra

They also expected to find the Nimble's iron kentledge, the typical ballast of British warships of that time, but didn't, possibly because treasure hunters or people salvaging metal picked it up in the years before the area was protected as a park.

Below Biscayne: The search for a pirate slave ship--and the stories that disappeared with it

The load frame consisted of a kentledge system and a hydraulic jack.

CPT-based interpretation of pile load tests in clay-silt soil

She is ballasted with utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge.

Part V: Herman Melville's "; or The Whale"

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