burden
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
business
crafts
engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
medicine
metallurgy
metalworking
mining
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English burden, birden, burthen, birthen, byrthen, from Old English byrden, byrþen, from Proto-West Germanic *burþini, from *burþī, from Proto-Germanic *burþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).
Inflected forms:
form: burdens
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: burthen
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
form: burdens
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: burdening
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: burdened
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: burdened
pos: verb
tags: past
form: burthen
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: A heavy load.
pos: noun
examples: I know that this was Life,—the track
⁠Whereon with equal feet we fared;
⁠And then, as now, the day prepared
The daily burden for the back.
There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens.
gloss: A responsibility, onus.
pos: noun
gloss: A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
pos: noun
examples: c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift, The Dean's Complaint Translated and Answered
Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.
gloss: The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
pos: noun
examples: a ship of a hundred tons burden
"[…] The quay is upwards of 1,000 feet in length, and capable of accommodating more than 100 sail of traders; and there are generally a considerable number of vessels of from 40 to 300 tons burden, from various parts of the world, waiting to receive their cargoes."
gloss: The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
pos: noun
gloss: The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
pos: noun
gloss: A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
pos: noun
examples: A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
gloss: A birth.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
rare
examples: … that bore thee at a burden two fair sons.
gloss: The total amount of toxins, parasites, cancer cells, plaque or similar present in an organism.
pos: noun
gloss: The distance between rows of blastholes parallel to the major free face (i.e. face of the excavation)
pos: noun
gloss: To encumber with a literal or figurative burden.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to burden a nation with taxes
My burdened heart would break.
This ſtraunge vnwelcome and vnhappie newes, […]
Burdens my heart, and interrupts my ſleepe, […]
For I meane not that other men bee eaſed, and you burthened: […]
gloss: To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He was beginning to forget his burdening, despairing mood of a short while ago.
Derived words: afterburden
after-burden
beast of burden
bioburden
burden basket
burdener
burdenless
burden of persuasion
burden of production
burden of proof
burdenous
burdensome
debt burden
disburden
double burden
emburden
enburden
enburdenment
overburden
reburden
sideburden
unburden
underburden
white man's burden
Translations: