burden

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burden

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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”).

• burthen (archaic)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɜːdn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɝdn̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dən

burden (plural burdens)

1. A heavy load.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XXV, page 42:

     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.

   • , J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

     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.

2. A responsibility, onus.
3. A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
   • c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift, The Dean's Complaint Translated and Answered

     Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.

4. The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.

   a ship of a hundred tons burden

   • 1945 May and June, Charles E. Lee, “The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 142, text published 1848:

     " […] 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."

5. (mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
6. (metalworking) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.^[1]
7. A fixed quantity of certain commodities.

   A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.

8. (obsolete, rare) A birth.

   … that bore thee at a burden two fair sons.

9. (medicine) The total amount of toxins, parasites, cancer cells, plaque or similar present in an organism.
10. (blasting) The distance between rows of blastholes parallel to the major free face (i.e. face of the excavation)

burden (third-person singular simple present burdens, present participle burdening, simple past and past participle burdened)

1. (transitive) To encumber with a literal or figurative burden.

   to burden a nation with taxes

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     My burdened heart would break.

   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw , Act I:

     This ſtraunge vnwelcome and vnhappie newes, […]
     Burdens my heart, and interrupts my ſleepe, […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 8:13, column 2:

     For I meane not that other men bee eaſed, and you burthened: […]

2. (transitive) To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“accompaniment”), from Old French bordon (“drone”), from Medieval Latin burdō. Doublet of bourdon.

burden (plural burdens)

2. (music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

   • 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition:

     As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.

3. The drone of a bagpipe.
   • 1740, Sébastien de Brossard, James Grassineau, A Musical Dictionary:

     BURDEN in some musical instruments, the Drone or Bass, and the pipe or string that plays it

4. Theme, core idea.

   the burden of the argument

• bunder, burned, unbred

burden

1. Alternative form of borden

From burde +‎ -en (plural ending).

burden

1. plural of burde

burden

1. plural of burd