overburthen

English

Noun

overburthen (plural overburthens)

1. Archaic form of overburden.
   • 1774, Isaac de Pinto, translated by S. Baggs, An Essay on Circulation and Credit‎^[1], London: J. Ridley, page 122:

     The over burthen of these expenses falls upon the sale of the commodity, and lessens the consumption.

   • 1832, John W. Colenso, "A Description of Happy-Union Tin Stream-work at Pentuan" in Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, T. Vigurs, Vol. 4, p. 38 [2]

     The overburthen contains no sea-sand, but is composed of silt and river gravel […] .

Verb

overburthen (third-person singular simple present overburthens, present participle overburthening, simple past and past participle overburthened)

1. Archaic form of overburden.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd‎^[3], London: Constable & Co.:

     In short the last man in the world, one would think, to be overburthened with thoughts, especially those perilous thoughts that must needs belong to a conspirator in any serious project, or even to the underling of such a conspirator.