Burthen

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)ðən

Full definition of burthen

Noun

1. (obsolete, nautical) The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.
2. Archaic spelling of burden
• 1798, William Wordsworth, , lines 36-43: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 weightOf all this unintelligible world,Is lightened:
• 1817, Jane Austen, :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.
• circa 1860 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Husbandsmen, lines 4, 6-7:Bidding them grope their way out and bestir,(...) though the worstBurthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirst

Verb

1. Archaic spelling of burden
• 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, :The 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.

Anagrams

• burneth