burthen

plural burthens

1. archaicArchaic form of burden.

   Bidding them grope their way out and bestir, […] though the worst Burthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirst

   c. 1860, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Husbandsmen, lines 4, 6-7

   3 more examples

   Nor less, I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened:

   1798, William Wordsworth, Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, lines 36–43

   It was with a daughter of Mr Shepherd, who had returned, after an unprosperous marriage, to her father's house, with the additional burthen of two children.

   1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC

   In some cases the conquering state contented itself with imposing a tribute on the vanquished: who, being, in consideration of that burthen, freed from the expense and trouble of their own military and naval protection, might enjoy under it a considerable share of economical prosperity, […]

   1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, book I (Production), page 19

   1. historicalobsoletenauticalThe tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.

      It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped something like a Chinese junk.

      1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 160

      1 more example

      [...] and thence to Calstock, a town on the Tamar, which is washed by the sea flowing through Plymouth Sound and Hamoaze, and which place vessels of 200 tons burthen can reach at spring tides—[...].

      1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, pages 647, from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 3, 1834

   2. Rarely used musical tempo, meaning slow and ponderous (e.g., moving under a burden); similar to largo.
   3. A section of music with the tempo mark burthen.

present singular third person burthens · participle present burthening · participle past burthened · past burthened

1. archaicArchaic form of burden.

   he other men were variously burthened; some carrying picks and shovels – for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore from the Hispaniola – others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC