load

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A weight or mass that is supported: the load on an arch.
2. n. The overall force to which a structure is subjected in supporting a weight or mass or in resisting externally applied forces.
3. n. Something that is carried, as by a vehicle, person, or animal: a load of firewood.
4. n. The quantity that is or can be carried at one time.
5. n. The share of work allocated to or required of a person, machine, group, or organization.
6. n. The demand for services or performance made on a machine or system.
7. n. The amount of material that can be inserted into a device or machine at one time: The camera has a full load of film.
8. n. A single charge of ammunition for a firearm.
9. n. A mental weight or burden: Good news took a load off my mind.
10. n. A responsibility regarded as oppressive.
11. n. The external mechanical resistance against which a machine acts.
12. n. Electricity The power output of a generator or power plant.
13. n. Electricity A device or the resistance of a device to which power is delivered.
14. n. A front-end load.
15. n. Informal A great number or amount. Often used in the plural: loads of parties during the holiday season.
16. n. Slang A heavy or overweight person.
17. n. Genetic load.
18. v. To put (something) into or onto a structure or conveyance: loading grain onto a train.
19. v. To put something into or onto (a structure or conveyance): loaded the tanker with crude oil.
20. v. To provide or fill nearly to overflowing; heap: loaded the table with food.
21. v. To weigh down; burden: was loaded with worries.
22. v. To insert (a necessary material) into a device: loaded film into the camera; loaded rounds into the rifle.
23. v. To insert a necessary material into: loaded the camera with film.
24. v. Games To make (dice) heavier on one side by adding weight.
25. v. To charge with additional meanings, implications, or emotional import: loaded the question to trick the witness.
26. v. To dilute, adulterate, or doctor. See Synonyms at adulterate.
27. v. To raise the power demand in (an electrical circuit), as by adding resistance.
28. v. To increase (an insurance premium or mutual fund share price) by adding expenses or sale costs.
29. v. Baseball To have or put runners on (first, second, and third base).
30. v. Computer Science To transfer (data) from a storage device into a computer's memory.
31. v. Computer Science To mount (a diskette) onto a floppy disk drive.
32. v. Computer Science To mount (a magnetic tape) onto a tape drive.
33. v. To receive a load: Container ships can load rapidly.
34. v. To charge a firearm with ammunition.
35. v. To put or place a load into or onto a structure, device, or conveyance.
36. idiom. get a load of Slang To look at; notice.
37. idiom. get a load of To listen to: Get a load of this!
38. idiom. have a load on Slang To be intoxicated.
39. idiom. take a load off To sit or lie down.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. See lode.
2. n. That which is carried; a burden laid on or placed in anything, or taken up, for conveyance; specifically, a suitable or customary burden; the amount or quantity that can be or usually is carried: as, a ship's load; a cart-load; wood and hay are often sold by the load.
3. n. That which is upborne or sustained; a burden; a weight resting on or in anything: as, a load of fruit on a tree; a load of learning in the mind.
4. n. Especially—3. That which is hard to be sustained or endured; an oppressive or grievous burden: as, a load of debt; a load of guilt.
5. n. The charge of a firearm: as, a load of buckshot.
6. n. A quantity of strong drink imbibed, or sometimes of food taken, that oppresses, or is more than can be borne comfortably or with propriety: as, he went home late with a load on.
7. n. A unit of measure or weight. By the statute of Edward I., de ponderibus et mensuris, a load (carrus) of lead is 1,500 pounds, and sometimes 168 stone, and in the Peak, 30 fotmals or 2,100 pounds, and of wheat the same. By statutes of George I., a load of wood is 50 cubic feet, and a load of hay 2,016 pounds. By a statute of 27 George III., a load of bulrushes is 63 bundles. Other loads are merely customary. Dr. Young says a load of wheat is 40 bushels; of earth or gravel, 1 cubic yard; of lime, 32 bushels; of oak-bark, 5,040 pounds; of sand, 36 bushels. A load of lead ore in Derbyshire is 9 dishes of from 14 to 16 pints each.
8. n. In mech., the pressure upon any part or the whole of a structure. It consists of the internal load, or permanent load, the weight of the part itself and its fixed attachments, and the external load, arising from pressures of other bodies upon its surface.
9. n. Synonyms and Freight, cargo, lading.
10. n. Pressure, dead-weight, incubus, clog.
11. To lay a burden on; charge with a load; furnish with lading or cargo; lade: as, to load a camel or a horse; to load a cart or wagon.
12. To lay as a burden; place upon or in something for conveyance: as, to load cotton on a lighter; to load cargo.
13. To weigh down; impose something upon, either good or bad; pile; heap; encumber or oppress: with with: as, to load the stomach with sweets; to load the memory with details.
14. To make heavy by something added or appended; charge, as with something extraneous: as, to load a whip; to load dice.
15. To make heavy, as a liquid; especially, to falsify, as wine, by mixing with it distilled liquor of some sort, usually accompanied with sugar and other ingredients, for the purpose of making a thin wine appear heavy and fullbodied; also, to increase the weight of, as paper, or textile fabrics, by the addition of clay, starch, or other extrinsic matter.
16. To place a charge in; charge, as a gun with powder and shot.
17. In painting:
18. To mix with white: said of a pigment which in this way is made more solid and opaque.
19. To paint heavily; apply (color) in solid opaque masses.
20. To put or take on a load or charge: often with up: as, the travelers loaded and started early; the ship loaded up with a miscellaneous cargo.
21. To charge a gun or guns: as, the troops loaded and fired rapidly.
22. To become loaded or burdened; clog up: as, oysters are apt to load with sand.
23. n. In electricity, the output of a generator, motor, or power-station. The load of a direct-current generator depends upon the ohmic resistance of the receiving circuit and is measured in watts, kilowatts, horse-power, or any convenient unit of activity or power. If the electromotive force of the generator is E and the current in the line is I, the product EI gives the load in watts. If there be any source of counter-electromotive force in the circuit, the electromotive force used in overcoming resistance, E′ , is less than E and the load is E′ I. In the case of a direct-current motor the load, w, or useful output, is given by the equation w = 2πnT, where T is the effective torque and n is the speed of the motor. The load of such a motor varies with the current supplied to it and is expressed by means of a load curve. In the case of a series-motor on a constant-potential circuit the load curve has the form shown in Fig. 1. It rises to a maximum for a certain value of the current and then falls gradually to zero as the current is further increased. Such a curve is sometimes called the load characteristic. The term load curve is also applied to any curve indicating the load of a machine, as a function of its speed, electromotive force, field excitation, or of any factor upon which in operation it may depend. In the case of an alternating-current machine, as a generator or transformer, the energy consumed in the receiving circuit, which measures the load of the machine, depends on the impedance of the circuit, the difference of phase between the electromotive force and current, and the wave form. We have therefore to distinguish, in such cases, between the inductive load of a circuit having inductance as well as resistance and the non-inductive load of a circuit whose impedance is solely that due to resistance. The load of a power-station or lighting-station, which varies with the time of day, is likewise represented by a load curve. The maximum of this curve, which indicates the time when the demand for power is greatest, is called the peak of the load. The area inclosed by the curve affords a measure of the total energy supplied from the station.
24. n. In a bridge or other structure, the fixed weight of the structure due to the material of which it is made, and which is not removable, or affected by movable weights on the floor or roof.
25. n. In railway service, the weight of cars, trucks, engine, and tender, which must be hauled in order to carry the paying load of freight or passengers.
26. To add to (the net amount of the premium fixed as the actual cost of issuing a policy of insurance) such an amount as will cover the office expense of carrying the policy.

Wiktionary

1. n. A burden; a weight to be carried.
2. n. figuratively A worry or concern to be endured, especially in the phrase a load off one's mind.
3. n. A certain number of articles or quantity of material that can be transported or processed at one time.
4. n. in combination Used to form nouns that indicate a large quantity, often corresponding to the capacity of a vehicle
5. n. often in the plural, colloquial A large number or amount.
6. n. The volume of work required to be performed.
7. n. engineering The force exerted on a structural component such as a beam, girder, cable etc.
8. n. electrical engineering The electrical current or power delivered by a device.
9. n. electrical engineering Any component that draws current or power from an electrical circuit.
10. n. obsolete A unit of measure, often equivalent to the capacity of a waggon, but later becoming more specific measures of weight.
11. n. A very small explosive inserted as a gag into a cigarette or cigar.
12. n. slang A slang term for semen.
13. v. transitive To put a load on or in (a means of conveyance or a place of storage).
14. v. transitive To place in or on a conveyance or a place of storage.
15. v. intransitive To put a load on something.
16. v. intransitive To receive a load.
17. v. intransitive To be placed into storage or conveyance.
18. v. transitive To fill (a firearm or artillery) with munition.
19. v. transitive To insert (an item or items) into an apparatus so as to ready it for operation, such as a reel of film into a camera, sheets of paper into a printer etc.
20. v. transitive To fill (an apparatus) with raw material.
21. v. intransitive To be put into use in an apparatus.
22. v. transitive, computing To read (data or a program) from a storage medium into computer memory.
23. v. intransitive, computing To transfer from a storage medium into computer memory.
24. v. transitive, baseball To put runners on first, second and third bases
25. v. transitive To tamper with so as to produce a biased outcome.
26. v. transitive To ask or adapt a question so that it will be more likely to be answered in a certain way.
27. v. transitive To encumber with something negative.
28. v. transitive To place as an encumbrance.
29. v. transitive To provide in abundance.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A burden; that which is laid on or put in anything for conveyance; that which is borne or sustained; a weight.
2. n. The quantity which can be carried or drawn in some specified way; the contents of a cart, barrow, or vessel; that which will constitute a cargo; lading.
3. n. That which burdens, oppresses, or grieves the mind or spirits.
4. n. A particular measure for certain articles, being as much as may be carried at one time by the conveyance commonly used for the article measured; ; specifically, five quarters.
5. n. The charge of a firearm.
6. n. obsolete Weight or violence of blows.
7. n. (Mach.) The work done by a steam engine or other prime mover when working.
8. n. The amount of work that a person, group, or machine is assigned to perform.
9. n. (Elec.) The device or devices that consume power from a power supply.
10. n. (Engineering) The weight or force that a structural support bears or is designed to bear; the object that creates that force.
11. v. To lay a load or burden on or in, as on a horse or in a cart; to charge with a load, as a gun; to furnish with a lading or cargo, as a ship; hence, to add weight to, so as to oppress or embarrass; to heap upon.
12. v. Cant To adulterate or drug.
13. v. obsolete To magnetize.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a quantity that can be processed or transported at one time
2. v. transfer from a storage device to a computer's memory
3. n. weight to be borne or conveyed
4. n. an onerous or difficult concern
5. n. a deposit of valuable ore occurring within definite boundaries separating it from surrounding rocks
6. n. electrical device to which electrical power is delivered
7. n. an amount of alcohol sufficient to intoxicate
8. v. put (something) on a structure or conveyance
9. n. the power output of a generator or power plant
10. v. provide (a device) with something necessary
11. v. corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones
12. n. goods carried by a large vehicle
13. v. fill or place a load on
14. n. the front part of a guided missile or rocket or torpedo that carries the nuclear or explosive charge or the chemical or biological agents