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Burden   Listen
noun
Burden  n.  (Written also burthen)  
1.
That which is borne or carried; a load. "Plants with goodly burden bowing."
2.
That which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive. "Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, To all my friends a burden grown."
3.
The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry; as, a ship of a hundred tons burden.
4.
(Mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
5.
(Metal.) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
6.
A fixed quantity of certain commodities; as, a burden of gad steel, 120 pounds.
7.
A birth. (Obs. & R.)
Beast of burden, an animal employed in carrying burdens.
Burden of proof (Law), the duty of proving a particular position in a court of law, a failure in the performance of which duty calls for judgment against the party on whom the duty is imposed.
Synonyms: Burden, Load. A burden is, in the literal sense, a weight to be borne; a load is something laid upon us to be carried. Hence, when used figuratively, there is usually a difference between the two words. Our burdens may be of such a nature that we feel bound to bear them cheerfully or without complaint. They may arise from the nature of our situation; they may be allotments of Providence; they may be the consequences of our errors. What is upon us, as a load, we commonly carry with greater reluctance or sense of oppression. Men often find the charge of their own families to be a burden; but if to this be added a load of care for others, the pressure is usually serve and irksome.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Burden" Quotes from Famous Books



... prince, princess, and horse had all disappeared, and instead was a dense forest, crossed and recrossed by countless paths. Kostiei's soldiers dashed hastily into the forest, believing they saw before them the flying horse with its double burden. They seemed close upon them, when suddenly horse, wood, everything disappeared, and they found themselves at the place where they started. There was nothing for it but to return to Kostiei, and tell him ...
— The Grey Fairy Book • Various

... and as for traveling carriages, there had been no such invention in those days. They made arrangements, therefore, for carrying the duke on a litter. There were sixteen Moorish slaves employed to serve as his bearers. This company was divided into sets, four in each, the several sets taking the burden in rotation. Robert and his attendant knights looked down with great contempt on these black pagan slaves. One day the cavalcade was met by a Norman who was returning home to Normandy after having accomplished his pilgrimage. He asked Duke Robert if he had any message to send to ...
— William the Conqueror - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... Nevertheless, the great tendencies already at work we can partly discern and recognize something of what they promise. It is well to try to see them, that we may be not too unready to welcome the opportunity and accept the burden of the world that is being ...
— The Soul of Democracy - The Philosophy Of The World War In Relation To Human Liberty • Edward Howard Griggs

... mean to be a beast of burden any longer.' And she flung the bucket so high in the air that it stuck in the branches ...
— The Red Fairy Book • Various

... available. Over-harshness is in some ways worse than over-easiness, because it makes less pleasant the relation between nurse and patient, and the latter should regard the former as her "next friend." Let the nurse, therefore, place upon the doctor the burden of decision in disputed matters; his position will not be injured with the patient by strict enforcement of the letter of the law, while the nurse's may be. But one nurse will suit one patient and not another: so that I never hesitate to ...
— Fat and Blood - An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria • S. Weir Mitchell

... its more enduring and injurious shape. The condition now is not that of an increasing glut of goods; the existing glut continues to block the avenues of commerce and to check further production, but it does not represent the real burden of over-supply. The true excess now shows itself in the shape of idle machinery, closed factories, unworked mines, unused ships and railway trucks. It is the auxiliary capital that represents the bulk of over-supply, and whose idleness signifies the enforced unemployment ...
— The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - A Study of Machine Production • John Atkinson Hobson

... hand.] They can't get them. But that won't help you. Now men, be reasonable. Your demands would have brought on us the burden of a dozen strikes at a time when we were not prepared for them. The Unions live by justice, not to one, but all. Any fair man will tell you—you were ill-advised! I don't say you go too far for that which you're entitled to, but you're going too far for the moment; you've dug a ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... by the time the Malay, bearing his heavy burden, reached the tree, smoke was oozing through a stack of faggots that were soon ...
— The Castaways • Captain Mayne Reid

... house and disappeared under the dark archway. For Sora Nanna and Stefanone, her husband, were rich people for their station, and their house was large and was built with an arch wide enough and high enough for a loaded beast of burden to pass through with a man on its back. And, within, everything was clean and well kept, excepting all that belonged to Annetta. There were airy upper rooms, with well-swept floors of red brick or of beaten cement, furnished with high beds on iron trestles, and wooden stools of well-worn brown ...
— Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) • F. Marion Crawford

... unwieldy, awkward, and, to the modern mind, most grotesque vessels in which such audacious deeds were performed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries awaken perpetual astonishment. A ship of a hundred tons burden, built up like a tower, both at stem and stern, and presenting in its broad bulbous prow, its width of beam in proportion to its length, its depression amidships, and in other sins against symmetry, as much opposition to progress over the waves as could well ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... that when he was thirty years old, he drove outside of the palace gates and saw a man who was old and worn out with labour and whose weak limbs could hardly carry the burden of life. Siddhartha pointed him out to his coachman, Channa, but Channa answered that there were lots of poor people in this world and that one more or less did not matter. The young prince was very sad but he did not say anything and went back to live with ...
— The Story of Mankind • Hendrik van Loon

... curious exercise, which was that he took a young bull calf over his shoulders and carried it to the top of the hill of Barone; and each day as the calf grew older, so did its weight increase, and the burden become greater to bear. Thus did Kenric make himself strong, until, at the end of that summer of 1263, there was no man in all Bute who could excel him in the use of arms or overcome him in ...
— The Thirsty Sword • Robert Leighton

... Father, I commit All, all my spirit's care, The sorest burden this dim life can bear, The sweetest hope wherewith its paths are lit! Into thy hands, that hold so closely knit What our blind, aching heart Calls joy or grief,—we know them not apart! Into the hands whence leap The hurling tempest, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various

... defenceless condition of the frontiers of, i. 225, 244; substantial character of breakfast in, before the Revolution (note), i. 306; indignation of the people of, at the right claimed by Parliament to tax the colonies, i. 368; early efforts made in, to cast off the burden of negro slavery—instructions of the king to the governor of, in relation to the slave-trade, i. 379; address of the assembly of, to the king, on the slave-trade, i. 380; successive prorogations of the house of burgesses of, by Lord Dunmore, ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... effects of all this were visible at an early period in the prevalence of crime and outrage; in the laxity with which offenders were prosecuted; in the squandering of public property; the increasing burden of taxation; and the insecurity of life and property. Now and then when the evils of the system weighed with the most depressing effect upon the business part of the community, some spasmodic effort for a time produced a change. But a temporary check ...
— A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856 • Stephen Palfrey Webb

... that he had not before him many years of rugged life. For several years previous to 1874, Mr. Sumner had been accustomed to speak of himself as an old man, and on more than one occasion he spoke of life as a burden. To these utterances I ...
— Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 2 • George S. Boutwell

... not comprehended in this provision, what are we now controverting? What but the expedience of a law that will never be executed? The sailors, however they are contemned by those who think them only worthy to be treated like beasts of burden, are not yet so stupid but that they can easily find out, that to serve a fortnight for greater wages is more eligible than to toil a month for less; and as the numerous equipments that have been lately made ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 10. - Parlimentary Debates I. • Samuel Johnson

... A heavy burden of new responsibility was on the young pastor of Saint Marks. The newcomers had no such alertness and resourcefulness as his own people. They were helpless in the face of new experiences. Soon they ...
— John Wesley, Jr. - The Story of an Experiment • Dan B. Brummitt

... shore while our vessel lay at anchor in North Bay, for I had no anxiety to encounter the mosquitoes which abound there, though not to the extent that makes life such a burden as upon the eastern shores of Hudson's Bay. While our water-casks were being filled at Marble Island in the early part of August, Captain Baker and I went in one of the ship's boats to the main-land, ...
— Schwatka's Search • William H. Gilder

... escape unhappiness as to secure happiness; for, when you become what I hope to see you, you will look at things so differently! You will pity those about you, you will not judge them. The irksome duties laid upon you will not be a burden to you. You will understand the beauty of the country for the first time; and the thought of leaving it will reveal its sweetness to you. But, on the other hand, fortunately, new reasons for going will appeal to your conscience: first, your just pride in what you are and ...
— The Choice of Life • Georgette Leblanc

... the bed with me. I am getting desperate and feel disposed to run furiously in the traces till I drop dead on the way. Don't think me very wicked for saying so. I am jaded in soul and body and hardly know what I do want. If T. comes, George, at all events, will get relief and that will take a burden from my mind.... I want Lina to come this summer. There is a splendid swing on iron hooks under a tree, at the house we are going to move into. Won't that be nice for Jeanie and Mary's other children, if they come? I wish I had ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss

... tame and hesitating enough. It seemed to him that he could not force into the cold formula of words the emotion that agitated him. But with quickening breath he poured out his love, his hopes, and his fears,—the old burden! She trembled, her eyelids fell; but at length, roused by his pleading tones, she looked up. Their eyes met; one look was enough; it was a reciprocal electric flash. With a sudden energy he clasped her in his arms; and it was a ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858 • Various

... tree. Its wood, although not as hard as the red oak, resembles it in grain. The beams of many old pioneer homes are found to be chestnut. It is said that this is one of few woods to give a warning groan under too heavy a burden before it cracks or breaks. Chestnut wood is very durable in contact with the soil, outlasting all others except possibly black walnut and cedar. It contains so much siliceous matter in its pores that it quickly dulls chisels and saws used ...
— Growing Nuts in the North • Carl Weschcke

... back into the elevator, Lanyard saw this one's glance irresistibly attracted to the table dedicated to the service of the Princess de Alavia. Something much resembling satisfaction glimmered in the fellow's leaden eyes: it was apparent that he anticipated early relief from a distasteful burden of responsibility. ...
— The False Faces • Vance, Louis Joseph

... action at that time, than to have awaited the mournful catastrophe of Culloden. At length, although he never could be brought to approve of the step, Charles gave a reluctant and sorrowful consent to that which all his chieftains called upon him to adopt. The burden of the censure which was afterwards cast upon this decision, was thrown upon the Lieutenant-General. "I was told," writes Lord George, "that I was much blamed for it. I really cannot tell who was the first that spoke of it, but this I am sure, every one of us were unanimously of the same opinion." ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... of them raised the mattress, and carried it and the sleeping woman to a broad couch, and laid them on it. They staggered under their burden, for truly Victoire was ...
— Arsene Lupin • Edgar Jepson

... a moment. He laid his burden down upon the boards just within the door and smoothed back the streaming hair. "Even the shell flung out by the ...
— Foes • Mary Johnston

... is a new building code, or an attempt at taxing the school buildings, which creates hardships to the parochial and other private schools. Now it is the free text book law that puts a double burden on the Catholics. Then again it is the unwise extension of the compulsory school age that forces children to be in school until they are 16 to 18 ...
— The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition • Upton Sinclair

... receive its ruler from no one but the head of the empire. This gave little satisfaction to the Confederates. 'The Emperor,' say they, 'had promised to assist us with cavalry; but he went no further than fair words. We, the Pope, and the Venetians have borne the burden of the war. And now, he, who did nothing, comes to carry off the prize.' Yet it does not break out into an open quarrel. Another embassy arrives from the Holy Father, Julius, and the cardinals. It brings to the Confederates the title of honor, 'Liberators of the Church.' Most welcome is this ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger

... of great political languor. The burden of the war was severely felt. The blaze of freedom, it was said, that burst forth at the beginning had gone down, and numbers, in the thirst for riches, lost sight of the original object. (Independent Chronicle, March 12, 1778.) 'Where,' wrote Henry Laurens (successor to John Hancock ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Egerton Ryerson

... and many people who have plans and schemes which they wish to press upon the Conference, and that it was probable that the Conference would be subjected to very great inconvenience if they took upon themselves even the burden of acknowledging the receipt of ...
— International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884. • Various

... reasons. Firstly, because everyone is more solicitous about procuring what belongs to himself alone than that which is common to all or many, since each shunning labour leaves to another what is the common burden of all, as happens with a multitude of servants. Secondly, because human affairs are conducted in a more orderly fashion if each has his own duty of procuring a certain thing, while there would be confusion if each should procure things haphazard. Thirdly, because in this way ...
— Mediaeval Socialism • Bede Jarrett

... since Bede in commenting on Luke 13:14, "The ruler of the synagogue being angry that He had healed on the Sabbath," says (Comment. iv): "The Law forbids, not to heal man on the Sabbath, but to do servile works," i.e. "to burden oneself with sin." Taken literally it is a ceremonial precept, for it is written (Ex. 31:13): "See that you keep My Sabbath: because it is a sign between Me and you in your generations." Now the precepts of the decalogue are both spiritual ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... intercepted letter which the Duke de Berwick, the half-brother of the Chevalier, addressed to a person of distinction in England, first gave the intelligence of an intended invasion.[67] The burden of that letter was to encourage the riots and tumults, and to keep up the spirits of the people with a promise of prompt assistance. The impeachment of Viscount Bolingbroke and of the Duke of Ormond ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745. - Volume I. • Mrs. Thomson

... as they tried to picture Peter Rabbit with a big tail like that of Reddy Fox. "I am afraid you wouldn't get far if you had to carry that around," said Old Mother Nature. "Even Reddy finds it rather a burden in wet weather when it becomes heavy with water. That is one reason you do not find him abroad much when it is raining or in winter when the snow is soft and wet. Reddy Fox is at home all over the northern half of this country, and ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess

... now and then by the wayside. I also offered him, gratis, the use of a handful of my choicest Tuscan blasphemies, [16] for which he was much obliged. Most of them were unfamiliar to him. He had been brought up by his mother, he explained. They seemed to make his burden lighter. ...
— Alone • Norman Douglas

... the heir in penury, bored to death by an idle life, and without a hope of establishing himself. That bitter thought and his own exhaustion, no doubt, hastened the old man's end. One great comfort came to him as he lay amid the wreck of so many hopes, sinking under the burden of so many cares—the old Marquis, at his sister's entreaty, gave him back all the old friendship. The great lord came to the little house in the Rue du Bercail, and sat by his old servant's bedside, all unaware how much that servant ...
— The Collection of Antiquities • Honore de Balzac

... a limit in that way," said Deronda. "You would be making a painful enigma for Mrs. Davilow; an income from which you shut yourself out must be embittered to her. And your own course would become too difficult. We agreed at Genoa that the burden on your conscience is one what no one ought to be admitted to the knowledge of. The future beneficence of your life will be best furthered by your saving all others from the pain of that knowledge. In my opinion you ought simply to abide by the provisions of your husband's ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot

... not to organization that I object, but to an artificial society that must prove a burden, a clog, an incumbrance, rather than a help. Such an organization as now actually exists among the women of America I hail with heartfelt joy. We are bound together by the natural ties of spiritual affinity; ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... that she wished nothing changed in her own life, that she had outlived all that was to be regretted of that troubled time. She had known this before, and the knowledge came home to her joyfully as she stood there, but it did not lighten her burden of dread of what might lie in the future for ...
— Janet's Love and Service • Margaret M Robertson

... hag thought I was mad; for I caught the child in my arms, held it to my heart while I bent over my wife's body, and kissed her cold, unreturning—for the first time unreturning—lips; then flung myself out of the accursed place,—ran with my burden to the shipowners, who had parted with me most grudgingly,—and was scudding before the wind in less than twelve hours, more at war with my own species than ever, and panting for something to wreak my hatred on. ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... right; your mouth is too grave. Think of something amusing—of the Bal Blanc at Madame d'Etaples, or merely, if you like, of the satisfaction it will give you to be done with these everlasting sittings—to be no longer obliged to bear the burden of a secret, in short to get ...
— Jacqueline, Complete • (Mme. Blanc) Th. Bentzon

... at a settlement by which Georgia transferred the lands in question to the Federal Government, which undertook to form of them the Mississippi Territory and to pay any damages involved. In 1802 Georgia threw the whole burden upon the central government by transferring to it all of her land beyond her present boundaries, though for this she exacted an article favorable to slavery. All was now made into the Mississippi Territory, to which Congress held out the ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... suggestion of the serpent; more rarely he was his usual, vulturine self. He watched her curiously, ever between anger and derision, to all of which she presented a calm front and a patience almost saintly. He was as a man with some mighty burden on his mind, undecided whether he shall bear ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini

... brows" they were eating bread and earning an honest living for their families! Suffering and hard-worked as they were, they were quite independent. I have not seen a beggar or beggary in this strange country. The women were carrying 70 lbs. These burden-bearers have their backs covered by a thick pad of plaited straw. On this rests a ladder, curved up at the lower end like the runners of a sleigh. On this the load is carefully packed till it extends from ...
— Unbeaten Tracks in Japan • Isabella L. Bird

... the arenak walls they recognized Dunark, Kofedix of Kondal, at the controls, and saw Sitar, his beautiful young queen, lying in one of the seats near the wall. She attempted a friendly greeting, but her face was strained as though she were laboring under a burden too ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... alone, sends him to a woman. Perhaps this is the survival of an idea implanted in childhood when baby runs to mother for sure comfort with broken doll or bruised thumb. It persists and never dies, so that one great duty, one great privilege, one great burden of womankind is to give ear to man's outpourings of his woes, and to offer such comfort as ...
— Youth Challenges • Clarence B Kelland

... came into her mind the memory of a winter day when she had stood there in the firelight before it, stirred to the depths by the music this one of "the choir invisible" had made of her life, by her purpose to "ease the burden of the world"—"to live in scorn of miserable aims ...
— The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor • Annie Fellows Johnston

... was not papa a gentleman, let him be ever so poor? Shillings and sovereigns in his pocket could not determine whether a man was a gentleman or not! And if he was a gentleman, his daughter must be a lady. But how could I be a lady if I was content to be a burden to a poor charwoman, instead of earning my own living, and something besides with which to help her? For I had the notion—how it came I cannot tell, though I know well enough whence it came—that position depended on how much a person was able to help other people; and here I was, ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald

... special object of his antipathy was the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He issued a pamphlet against it which went through five editions in two years, sent solemn warnings to its president, and in various ways made life a burden to Sedgwick, Buckland, and other eminent investigators who ventured to state geological facts ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... in my brain," said he, "what I should do to relieve my niece of this burden of anxiety which is weighing upon her. I could see no way, for letters would be of no use, not knowing where to send them, and it would be dreary, indeed, to sit and wait and sigh and dream bad dreams until chance throws some light upon this grievous ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton

... Father and the Son: the angels, they could have no hands in it; the world could not do it; the devils had rather see them damned than they would wish them the least good; thus Christ looked, and there was none to help; though the burden lay never so heavy upon His shoulder, He must bear it Himself; for there was none besides Himself to uphold, or so much as to step in to be bound, to see the conditions, before mentioned, fulfilled neither in whole nor in part (Isa 63:1-7). So that He must not be only He with ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... hand had nervously clenched Ruth's dress, and she would not have him disturbed. She carried her heavy burden very tenderly towards a mean little cottage indicated by the neighbours; an old crippled woman was coming out of the door, shaking ...
— Ruth • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... lower must seek for that help and sincerely accept it when offered. As a child, his prayers had been very largely a set form, but as he had come in contact with life and its experiences, he had learned to suit his prayers to his needs. Just now, Carlia and her welfare was the burden ...
— Dorian • Nephi Anderson

... to think hopefully of Emily, it seemed to make a man of him, and he took up all that he had to do, as if it really concerned him, and was not only a burden laid on ...
— Lady Hester, or Ursula's Narrative • Charlotte M. Yonge

... thus rises from the plain, leagues in length, noble in height; and very strange it is to see the flat earth fall away from it like waters from the bows of a boat, as it soars into the sky with its burden of palaces ...
— The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories • L. Adams Beck

... double burden of flesh and consequence, had painfully laboured after Odo up the high stone flights to that young gentleman's modest lodgings, and they stood together in a study lined with books and hung with prints and casts from the antique. Odo threw off his dusty ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... friend of the English, but the burden they lay upon us is becoming every day more intolerable. If England is bent upon war, why should we sacrifice our blood and treasure upon it? Do we not know full well what powerful foes England has? You ...
— The Coming Conquest of England • August Niemann

... her position would be, if attention were once directed towards her. So, in the vain endeavor to cover up my blunder, I began to lie. Forced to admit that a shadow of disagreement had been lately visible between Mr. Leavenworth and one of his nieces, I threw the burden of it upon Eleanore, as the one best able to bear it. The consequences were more serious than I anticipated. Direction had been given to suspicion which every additional evidence that now came up seemed by some strange fatality to strengthen. Not only was it proved ...
— The Leavenworth Case • Anna Katharine Green

... a moment's hesitation among the Indians, by which Bois-Rose profited to draw towards him the body of the unlucky Gayferos. He, clinging to his shoulders, had the presence of mind to leave his preserver's arms free; who, with his burden, again entered the water, going backwards. Then his rifle was heard, and an Indian's death-cry immediately followed. This valiant retreat, protected by Pepe and Fabian, awed the Indians, and some minutes after, Bois-Rose triumphantly placed the ...
— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid

... which is the island called Xima in the charts, but named Maihma by the natives, while the former island is called Segue, or Amaxay.[7] The 10th, four great fishing-boats came aboard, about five tons burden each, having one large sail, like that of a skiff. They had each four oars of a side, resting on pins fastened to the gunwales, the heads of the pins being let into the middle of the oars, so that they hung in just equipoise, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... squared his shoulders to his fullest height, filling his lungs with a deeper inspiration, and the colour ran back to his cheeks in flood. Nor was it all in pride; there was relief, and the lifting up of a burden which for one terrible moment had threatened to crush him to the ...
— The Justice of the King • Hamilton Drummond

... provoking. For my part, I would rather a friend would deny me any thing than sympathy: without sympathy, there is no society—there is no living—there is no talking. I begin to feel my obligations a burden; and, positively, with the first money I receive from my estates, I will relieve myself from my pecuniary debt to this ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. 6 • Maria Edgeworth

... most of us feel it worth while; but it should be remembered that for one whose duty still calls him to live in the world it is by no means an unmixed blessing. Upon one in whom that vision is opened the sorrow and the misery, the evil and the greed of the world press as an ever-present burden, until in the earlier days of his knowledge he often feels inclined to echo the passionate adjuration contained in those rolling lines ...
— Clairvoyance • Charles Webster Leadbeater

... that once—one bad day far away behind us—we were unkind and gave pain to some one whom we love. Even their forgiveness cannot undo it. How I wish we could remember this always before we say the words which we afterward are so sorry for, and thus save our memories from the burden of a sad ...
— Eyebright - A Story • Susan Coolidge

... full possession of the vineyard. We all, in like manner, have intrusted to us, to do as we will with, the various gifts and powers of Christ's gospel. God, as it were, draws somewhat apart from man, that he may have free play for his choice, and bear the burden of responsibility. The divine action was conspicuous at the time of founding the polity of Judaism, and then came long years in which there were no miracles, but all things continued as they were. God was as near as before, but He seemed ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren

... had offered, in the humblest manner, to ease his wife's burden by sitting with him at night; and at last, finding she could hold up no longer, Mrs Crathie consented. But even after a week she found herself still unable to resume the watching, and so, night after night, resting at ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... and he was ungrammatical, and he never was at home in society; but he had a tender heart and an honest nature, and I revere his memory, as no one would believe I could without knowing him as I did. His money became a burden and a terror to him; he did not know what to do with it, and he was always morbidly afraid of doing harm with it; he got to thinking that money was an ...
— Through the Eye of the Needle - A Romance • W. D. Howells

... dozen trunks, from which dangled brocades and laces. This was all so absurd that in my mirth I missed what followed, but it seemed to be a long line of weary persons, each of whom staggered under the burden of an ...
— Chimney-Pot Papers • Charles S. Brooks

... only a dog, had no such way of sharing his burden. He had been told to find the child. And his simple code of life and of action left him no outlet from doing his duty; be that duty irksome or easy. So he kept on. Far ahead of the Master, his keen ears had not caught the sound of the shouts. The gale and the snow muffled them and ...
— Further Adventures of Lad • Albert Payson Terhune

... in such a world as this No one can gain his heart's desire, Or pass the years in perfect bliss; Like gold we must be tried by fire; And each shall suffer as he acts And thinks,—his own sad burden bear; No friends can help,—his sins are facts That nothing can annul or square, And he must bear their consequence. Can I my husband save by rites? Ah, no,—that were a vain pretence, Justice ...
— Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan • Toru Dutt

... anger the Portuguese in Macan," they buy from them rather than from the natives, but the supplies thus cost three times their value; the agent who buys them should buy wherever he can do so to the best advantage, and directly from the Chinese. The royal ships should be built in India, and the burden of enforced service in this work should be removed from the Indians. Commerce from Japan to Nueva Espana should be stopped; and Spaniards should not be allowed to man Japanese vessels. An enemy can close Manila harbor to all vessels desiring to enter; ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various

... mentally cold, but even as being actually wicked and mean. There were times when he would almost shudder if she spoke to him. And she could not understand how he could consider her wicked or mean. It only seemed to her a sort of madness in him that he should try to take upon his own shoulders the burden of his troop, of his regiment, of his estate and of half of his country. She could not see that in trying to curb what she regarded as megalomania she was doing anything wicked. She was just trying to keep things ...
— The Good Soldier • Ford Madox Ford

... payed over. She was built chiefly of cedar cut in the island, her beams and timbers being of oak saved from the wreck, and the planks of her bow of the same timber. She measured forty feet in the keel, and was nineteen feet broad; thus being of about eighty tons burden. She was named the Deliverance, as it was hoped that she would deliver the party from their present situation and carry them to the country to which they ...
— The Settlers - A Tale of Virginia • William H. G. Kingston

... is Diffidence, or a distrust of God's faithfulness, and a want of confidence in His mercy. When a Christian follows such counsels, gloom and horror of mind will be produced, and life become a burden—(Ivimey). ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... parents do not apparently expect their children to support them, because, as a rule they are, if not rich, at least in comfortable circumstances; and even if they are not, they would rather work for their livelihood than burden their children and hinder their success by relying on them for pecuniary aid. It may have escaped my observation, but, so far as I know, it is not the custom for young people to provide for their parents. There was, however, one exceptional case which ...
— America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat • Wu Tingfang

... to receive her last instructions: one of them alone, Francesca del Veruli, is kept away by a severe illness, which confines her to her bed. Touching were the last words of the dying mother to her spiritual children; sweet the words of blessing she pronounced on their heads. Love, love, was the burden of her teaching, as it had been that of the beloved disciple. "Love one another (she said), and be faithful unto death. Satan will assault you, as he has assaulted me; but be not afraid. You will overcome him through patience and obedience; and no trial will be too grievous, if ...
— The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others • Georgiana Fullerton

... and his wife parted soon after this; parted without any sign of compunction—there was a dead wall of pride between them. Clarissa felt the burden of her guilt, but could not bring herself to make any avowal of her repentance to the husband who had put her away from him,—so easily, as it seemed to her. That touched her ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon

... proceeded, Chowles called out, "Make way for one sick of the plague!" and the crowd instantly divided, and gave them free passage. In this way they descended to Saint Faith's, and, shaping their course to the vault, deposited their burden on the very bed lately occupied ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... of retiring from the mill with a sufficient income. Then again, Giles Toller was known to have saved money. His domestic expenses made no heavy demand on his purse; his German wife (whose Christian name was now borne by his daughter) had died long since; his sons were no burden on him; they had never lived at the mill in my remembrance. With all these reasons against his taking a stranger into his house, he had nevertheless, if my interpretation of Cristel's answer was the right one, let his spare rooms to a lodger. "Mr. Toller can't ...
— The Guilty River • Wilkie Collins

... certain rocks he dared not attempt the direct starboard passage, he came at last to her stern. Then he saw how imminent was the danger, for the poop of the vessel, which seemed to be of about a thousand tons burden, was awash and water-logged, but rolling and lifting beneath the pressure of the tide as it drew ...
— Stella Fregelius • H. Rider Haggard

... for such her Tomlin was, shouldered her as one would some precious burden liable to break, grinned, stood up and obediently trotted the length ...
— The Angel of the Tenement • George Madden Martin

... you, Lady Blennington," he declared, "that so far as my sex is represented here to-day, we are very strenuous people indeed. Signor di Marito here carries upon his shoulders a burden, just at the present moment, which few of the ambassadors would care to have to deal with. Mr. Chetwode I have visited in his office, and I can assure you that so far as his industry is concerned there is no manner of doubt. ...
— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... grafting buds on roots of seedlings in houses heated to tropical temperature. In many places it was the custom to lift the old plants, pot them, and keep them through the winter in pits. All this was found requisite to insure fine flowers. While the burden of the work was thus rendered heavy, the constitution of the plant became enfeebled, and at one time the fear was entertained that its extinction was at hand. But the new system has preserved the Hollyhock, and at the same time afforded ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons

... difficulty in the case," replied Mrs. Adair. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. My heart is large enough to take both of them in; but I have not strength enough to bear the added burden. And so I have come around this morning to see if I cannot awaken your interest. They are dear, sweet children, and will carry sunshine and a blessing into any home that ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur

... no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back. Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared among the rolling ridges across the river ...
— The Ramblin' Kid • Earl Wayland Bowman

... offer might be a comfort to you, though you should never need it, and all this when I believed that at that time you did not possess 5l.—I have continued to pray for you, or rather the Lord has enabled me every day once, twice, thrice, or even more, to remember you. The burden of my prayer still has been, that He would be pleased to make you very happy in Himself and enable you to enter into the inheritance which awaits you; further, that you may not be permitted in the least to regret the step which ...
— A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, Third Part • George Mueller

... with a sob. "There are some parts of my life that you must ignore, and if it grieves you to know what I have become during that time, you must never think of it; forget it. I beg of you, my child, do not judge me severely. And one of these days, if I die-ah! we must expect it—the burden of my grief is too heavy for me to bear, it crushes me! Well, my child, if I die, promise me to be indulgent to my memory, and when you think of your father only say: 'He ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... somber silence of several minutes, during which each heart struggled in secret rebellion under the galling burden ...
— Katherine's Sheaves • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... occasionally transported in Indian fashion, on two poles tied to a horse and trailing on the ground behind. In general, however, recourse must be had for transportation purposes to the faithful horse and the patient donkey. In the northern part of the Republic the ox is often used as a beast of burden and sometimes for riding, furnishing an odd spectacle. The ox is guided by a string tied to a ring in his nose, but neither the configuration of his back nor his gait are to be recommended for ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... work, I make no doubt, he has been after in this district. He came like a bloodhound to catch Henry Pollock, and like a fox to get what news he could about Sir John. What he lingers for his master only knows, but it grieves me, lassie, that ye have had the burden of him on your shoulders. They are too light, though they may be stronger than most, for such a weight; I will not deny your spirit, but he, as the Proverb goes, must have a lang spoon to sup wi' the deil. Has he spoken civilly"—and Lady Cochrane eyed her daughter keenly—"or ...
— Graham of Claverhouse • Ian Maclaren

... by us all, of plod, plod, plodding across the sand! That fatal monotony into which every man's life stiffens, as far as outward circumstances, outward joys and pleasures go! the depressing influence of custom which takes the edge off all gladness and adds a burden to every duty! the weariness of all that tugging up the hill, of all that collar-work which we have to do! Who is there that has not his mood, and that by no means the least worthy and man-like of his moods, wherein he ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... fortune—it was our interest that had lent such brightness to his hopes, and that imparted such bitterness to his present distress. He now tormented himself with remorse at having neglected my mother's advice; which would at least have saved him from the additional burden of debt—he vainly reproached himself for having brought her from the dignity, the ease, the luxury of her former station to toil with him through the cares and toils of poverty. It was gall and wormwood to his soul to see that splendid, highly- accomplished woman, once ...
— Agnes Grey • Anne Bronte

... scattered over the Confederacy a population which lacked experience of the world and which included in the main those small farmers and semi-peasants who under the old regime were released from the burden of taxation and at the same time excluded from the benefits of education. Among these people the illusions of the higher classes were reflected without the ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any ...
— The Day of the Confederacy - A Chronicle of the Embattled South, Volume 30 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Nathaniel W. Stephenson

... woman—young by her step, light and quick as the antelope's, graceful by her movements, charming by her outlines which a poor, thin woolen wrapper imperfectly shrouded. She enchanted by the mere contour; it was her weird burden which appalled the watcher. In one hand, suspended horizontally, lengthwise parallel to her course, she held what seemed by shape and somber hue ...
— The Son of Clemenceau • Alexandre (fils) Dumas

... now in full possession of my senses," continued Mr Girtle, slightly raising his voice, "know that this is a strange and arduous burden to lay upon my heir in chief, though I have taken such precautions that in a short time my presence in the house may entirely be forgotten, I give and bequeath to him for his sole use and enjoyment—and ...
— The Dark House - A Knot Unravelled • George Manville Fenn

... which the treasures were ranged, like an eagle seizing her prey, I fell upon the first heap of golden coin that was near me. My sacks were all large, and with my good will I would have filled them all; but I was obliged to proportion my burden to the strength of my camels. The dervish did the same; but I perceived he paid more attention to the jewels, and when he told me the reason, I followed his example, so that we took away much more jewels than gold. When we had filled our sacks, and loaded our camels, we had nothing left ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 3 • Anon.

... folk in much plenty and ease of life, though not delicately nor desiring things out of measure. They wrought with their hands and wearied themselves; and they rested from their toil and feasted and were merry: to-morrow was not a burden to them, nor yesterday a thing which they would fain forget: life shamed them not, nor did death ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... round the dining-room table, and spanning out the scansion of his verses with his hand on the smooth mahogany. He was scarce more than a child when, one Guy Fawkes' day, he heard a woman singing an unfamiliar song, whose burden was, "Following the Queen of the Gipsies, O!" This refrain haunted him often in the after years. That beautiful fantastic romance, "The Flight of the Duchess," was born out of an insistent memory of this woman's snatch of song, heard in childhood. ...
— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp

... minutes, was to come very nearly to loving her. The Joppites saw but one fault in her; she did not and would not visit. All who sought her out were made more than welcome; but whether from the extreme delicacy of her health, which rendered visiting a burden, or because of her widow's dress of deepest mourning, which she had never laid aside, it came to be an accepted thing that she went nowhere. It was a great disappointment in Joppa; nevertheless it ...
— Only an Incident • Grace Denio Litchfield

... to render the general hardships more endurable, and going about it with so little ostentation that it too often passed unappreciated; Hazard, genial, impulsive, generous; Howland, who, on the march, bore the heaviest burden with the least murmuring; and with exemplary fidelity was ever to be found in his place as the guide of the company, plodding along unfalteringly; Corporal Hurlbut, snatching from an exhausted comrade the musket which was dragging him down, to bear it upon his own weary shoulders; Thornton, whose ...
— Our campaign around Gettysburg • John Lockwood

... sound the anthem loud and long, In sweetest, loftiest strains; And be the burden of the song, ...
— Hymns for Christian Devotion - Especially Adapted to the Universalist Denomination • J.G. Adams

... industry is based on the processing of agricultural products, durable consumer goods, minerals, and chemicals. Unemployment is officially reported at about 30%, but there is considerable underemployment. An increasing foreign debt burden and galloping inflation are the ...
— The 1991 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.



Words linked to "Burden" :   load, superload, gist, dead weight, millstone, flood out, loading, bear down, unburden, imposition, dead load, charge, pill, overwhelm, core, deluge, beast of burden, concern, encumbrance, overload, import, weight down, incumbrance, effect, meaning, burden of proof, adjure, significance, burthen, command, fardel, overburden, onus, essence, plumb, vexation, signification



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