Plants with goodly burden bowing.
Shak.

Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone,
To all my friends a burden grown.
Swift.

Beast of burden, an animal employed in carrying burdens. -- Burden of proof [L. onus probandi] (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.

Syn. -- 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.

I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened.
2 Cor. viii. 13.

My burdened heart would break.
Shak.

It is absurd to burden this act on Cromwell.
Coleridge.

Syn. -- To load; encumber; overload; oppress.

I would sing my song without a burden.
Shak.