disburden

From dis- +‎ burden.

• IPA^(key): /dɪsˈbɜː(ɹ)dən/

disburden (third-person singular simple present disburdens, present participle disburdening, simple past and past participle disburdened)

1. (transitive) To rid of a burden; to free from a load carried; to unload.

   to disburden a pack animal

   • 1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: or T N Longman and O Rees, , by Biggs and Cottle, , →OCLC, pages 258–259:

     The desert Pelican had built her nest / In that deep solitude. / And now returned from distant flight / Fraught with the river stream, / Her load of water had disburthened there. / Her young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness; […]

2. (transitive) To free from a source of mental trouble.
   • 1650, Henry Hammond, Of the reasonableness of Christian religion:

     My meditations […] will, I hope, be more […] calm, being thus disburdened.

   • 1677, Owen Feltham, Of Improving by Good Examples:

     He did it to disburden a conscience.

   • 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. , London: W Chetwood, ; and T. Edling, , published 1722, →OCLC:

     He told me he did not come as ordinary of the place, whose business it is to extort confessions from prisoners, for private ends, or for the further detecting of other offenders; that his business was to move me to such freedom of discourse as might serve to disburthen my own mind, and furnish him to administer comfort to me as far as was in his power; and assured me, that whatever I said to him should remain with him, and be as much a secret as if it was known only to God and myself; and that he desired to know nothing of me, but as above to qualify him to apply proper advice and assistance to me, and to pray to God for me.

   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC:

     I heard my sister's sobs, and thought, happy are women who can weep, and in a passionate caress disburthen the oppression of their feelings; shame and habitual restraint hold back a man.

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC:

     I waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me.

   • 1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVII, in Romola. , volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., , published 1863, →OCLC, book I, page 295:

     Romola's heart swelled again, so that she was forced to break off. But the need she felt to disburden her mind to Tito urged her to repress the rising anguish.

• disburthen (obsolete)

• disemburden

• unburden

• underbids