burden

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an onerous or difficult concern

   the burden of responsibility

2. 2
   verb

   to impose a task upon, assign a responsibility to

   The commander burdened their junior officers with paperwork.

3. 3
   verb

   to weigh down with a load

   They burdened the pack mule with extra supplies.

4. 4
   noun

   A heavy load.

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

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

   a ship of a hundred tons burden

7. 7
   noun

   A fixed quantity of certain commodities.

   A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.

8. 8
   noun

   A birth.

   … that bore thee at a burden two fair sons.

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”).