Word: load Part of Speech: noun Etymology: The sense of “burden” first arose in the 13th century as a secondary meaning of Middle English lode, loade, which had the main significance of “way, course, journey”, from Old English lād (“course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laidō (“leading, way”), Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, go forth, die”). Cognate with Middle Low German leide (“entourage, escort”), German Leite (“line, course, load”), Swedish led (“way, trail, line”), Icelandic leið (“way, course, route”). As such, load is a doublet of lode, which has preserved the older meaning. Most likely, the semantic extension of the Middle English substantive arose by conflation with the (etymologically unrelated) verb lade; however, Middle English lode occurs only as a substantive; the transitive verb load (“to charge with a load”) is recorded only in the 16th century (frequently in Shakespeare), and (except for the participle laden) has largely supplanted lade in modern English. For the meaning development from PIE, compare Latin carrus (whence carry) akin to currō. Pronunciation: /loʊd/, /ləʊd/ 1. A burden; a weight to be carried. Example: I struggled up the hill with the heavy load in my rucksack. 2. A worry or concern to be endured, especially in the phrase a load off one's mind. Labels: figuratively Example: Our life's a load. Example: I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you. 3. A certain number of articles or quantity of material that can be transported or processed at one time. Example: The truck overturned while carrying a full load of oil. Example: She put another load of clothes in the washing machine. 4. A quantity of washing put into a washing machine for a wash cycle. Example: I put a load on before we left. 5. Used to form nouns that indicate a large quantity, often corresponding to the capacity of a vehicle Labels: in-compounds 6. A large number or amount. Labels: colloquial, in-plural, often Example: I got loads of presents for my birthday! Example: I got a load of emails about that. 7. The volume of work required to be performed. Example: Will our web servers be able to cope with that load? 8. The force exerted on a structural component such as a beam, girder, cable etc. Example: Each of the cross-members must withstand a tensile load of 1,000 newtons. 9. The electrical current or power delivered by a device. Example: I'm worried that the load on that transformer will be too high. 10. A resistive force encountered by a prime mover when performing work. 11. Any component that draws current or power from an electrical circuit. Example: Connect a second 24-ohm load across the power supply's output terminals. 12. A unit of measure for various quantities. Example: If this load equals its modern representative, it contains 18 cwt. of dry, 19 of new hay. 13. Ellipsis of viral load. Labels: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis 14. A very small explosive inserted as a gag into a cigarette or cigar. 15. The charge of powder for a firearm; a loaded cartridge or round of ammunition. Example: With the thought he he arose and removed his rifle from its boot. He looked to its loads and saw that the magazine was full. Then he inspected his revolver. 16. Weight or violence of blows. Labels: obsolete Example: Far heavier load thyself expect to feel From my prevailing arm 17. Defecation. Labels: slang, vulgar 18. The contents (e.g. semen) of an ejaculation. Labels: slang, vulgar Example: Already, Robbie had dumped a load into his dad, and now, before my very eyes, was Alan's own cock lube seeping out of Robbie's crinkled but fleshy sphincter. Example: It felt so good, I wanted to just keep going until I blew a load down his throat, but I hadn't even seen his ass yet, and I sure didn't want to come yet. 19. Nonsense; rubbish. Labels: euphemistic Example: What a load! 20. The process of loading something, i.e. transferring it into memory or over a network, etc. Example: All of those uncompressed images are going to slow down the page load. Example: This description represents a form of delay slot: the load operation takes some time to complete, say n cycles. Thus, the value loaded only becomes valid n cycles after the load seems to have executed and can therefore only be read after then. 21. Prepaid phone credit. Labels: Philippines