1. something that is carried.
2. something that is emotionally difficult to bear.
3. A source of great worry or stress; weight: the burden of economic sacrifice rests on the workers of the plant.
4. A responsibility or duty: the burden of organizing the campaign fell to me.
5. nautical the amount of cargo that a vessel can carry.
6. nautical the weight of the cargo carried by a vessel at one time.
7. the amount of a disease-causing entity present in an organism.
8. to weigh down; oppress.
9. to load or overload.
10. 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.
11. music the chorus or refrain of a composition, especially of a 15th-century carol.
12. music A drone, as of a bagpipe or pedal point.
13. archaic music the bass accompaniment to a song.

1. A heavy load.
2. A responsibility, onus.
3. A cause of worry.
4. A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad; the drone of a bagpipe.
5. theme, core idea.
6. to encumber with a burden (in any of the noun senses of the word).
7. A club (weapon).

1. that which is borne or carried; a load.
2. that which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
3. the capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
4. the tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
5. the proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
6. A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
7. A birth.
8. the verse repeated in a song, or the return of the theme at the end of each stanza; the chorus; refrain. hence: that which is often repeated or which is dwelt upon; the main topic.
9. the drone of a bagpipe.
10. A club.
11. to encumber with weight (literal or figurative); to lay a heavy load upon; to load.
12. to oppress with anything grievous or trying; to overload.
13. to impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).

1. to load; lay a heavy load on; encumber with weight.
2. hence figuratively, to load; oppress with anything which is borne with difficulty or trouble; surcharge: as, to burden a nation with taxes; to burden the memory with details.
3. to lay or impose upon one, as a load, burden, or charge.
4. that which is borne or carried; a load.
5. hence that which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive; also, an incumbrance of any kind.
6. in england, a quantity of certain commodities: as, a burden of gad-steel (that is, 120 or 180 pounds).
7. the capacity of a ship; the quantity or number of tons of freight a vessel will carry: as, a ship of 600 tons burden.
8. in mining, the tops or heads of stream-work, overlying the stream of tin, and needing to be first cleansed.
9. the charge of a blast-furnace.
10. the act of bearing children; a birth.
11. the bass in music.
12. in music: the refrain or recurring chorus at the end of the stanzas of a ballad or song; a refrain.
13. the drone of a bagpipe. the song to which a dance is danced when there are no instruments.
14. that which is often repeated; a subject on which one dwells; the main topic: as, this subject was the burden of all his talk.
15. A club.

1. weight down with a load
2. an onerous or difficult concern
3. the central idea that is expanded in a document or discourse
4. the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work
5. weight to be borne or conveyed
6. impose a task upon, assign a responsibility to