overburden

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to give someone or something more work, weight, debt, or responsibility than can reasonably be carried

   The new reporting rules could overburden small charities with paperwork.

2. 2
   noun

   geology and mining: soil and rock lying above a mineral deposit or bedrock

   The miners removed several meters of overburden before reaching the coal seam.

Formed from over- ('excessively; above') + burden. The verb names an excessive load; the geological noun uses the spatial sense of over- for material lying above a useful deposit.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images