bur·den
1 (bûŕdn)
[Middle English, from Old English byrthen.]
noun
- Something that is carried.
- Something that is emotionally difficult to bear.
- A source of great worry or stress; weight: The burden of economic sacrifice rests on the workers of the plant.
- A responsibility or duty: The burden of organizing the campaign fell to me.
- Nautical
- The amount of cargo that a vessel can carry.
- The weight of the cargo carried by a vessel at one time.
- The amount of a disease-causing entity present in an organism.
transitive verb: -dened, -den·ing, -dens.
- To weigh down; oppress.
- To load or overload.
synonyms:
burden1affliction, cross, trial, tribulation These nouns denote something onerous or troublesome: the burden of a guilty conscience; indebtedness that is an affliction; a temper that is her cross; a troublemaker who is a trial to the teacher; suffered many tribulations in rising from poverty.- See also: substance
bur·den
2 (bûŕdn)
[Variant of bourdon.]
noun
- A principal or recurring idea; a theme: “The burden of what he said was to defend enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy” (J.A. Froude) See synonyms at substance
- Music
- The chorus or refrain of a composition, especially of a 15th-century carol.
- A drone, as of a bagpipe or pedal point.
- Archaic The bass accompaniment to a song.
