BURDEN

burden

Noun

  1. A heavy load.
  2. A responsibility, onus.
  3. A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
  4. The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
    a ship of a hundred tons burden
  5. The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
  6. The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
  7. A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
    A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
  8. A birth.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
  2. The drone of a bagpipe.
  3. Theme, core idea.

Verb

  1. To encumber with a burden (in any of the noun senses of the word).
    to burden a nation with taxes
  2. To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).


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