burthen

• Listen to this sentence which I remember to have read in a commentary on his rule We must enter into the feelings of a beast of burthen, and allow ourselves to be led like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding; or rather, that obedience may be still more perfect, since these animals kick against the spur, we must be in the hands of a superior like a block, or the stock of a tree, which has neither life, nor movement, nor action, nor will, nor judgment.' —  En Route
• This will throw the odium of the burthen, and even of the proposition, on the Opposition, which is also advantageous to Government.--Never was anything, however so low and wretched as the Treasury Bench. —  Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) From the Original Family Documents
• This, however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen--at least it would be,' he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, 'were it not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you Come,' said Madame, rising, 'the carriages are at the door. —  Sketches
• Their companion had his motives for being insensible to either of these emotions After a short and rapid symphony, a wind-instrument took up a wild strain, while a human voice was again heard chanting to the music, words which were so much involved by the composition of the air, as to render it impossible to trace more than that their burthen was a sort of mysterious incantation of some ocean deity Squeaking and flutes!" —  The Water-Witch or, the Skimmer of the Seas
• Where the masters bore a good share of the burthen, and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided for, and their labour moderate, I felt more easy. —  The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context