burden | |
1. n. A heavy load. | |
2. n. A responsibility, onus. | |
3. n. A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive. | |
4. n. The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry. | |
a ship of a hundred tons burden | |
5. n. (mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin. | |
6. n. (metalworking) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace. | |
7. n. A fixed quantity of certain commodities. | |
A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds. | |
8. n. (obsolete, rare) A birth. | |
(...) that bore thee at a burden two fair sons. | |
9. n. (medicine) The total amount of toxins, parasites, cancer cells, plaque or similar present in an organism. | |
10. v. To encumber with a literal or figurative burden. | |
to burden a nation with taxes | |
11. v. To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable). | |
12. n. (music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad. | |
13. n. The drone of a bagpipe. | |
14. n. (obsolete) Theme, core idea. | |