1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Overburden

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

v. To burden with too much weight; overload.

v. To subject to an excessive burden or strain; overtax.

n. An excessive burden; an overload.

n. Geology Material overlying a useful mineral deposit.

n. Geology Sedimentary rock covering older crystalline layers.

n. Archaeology A sterile stratum overlying a stratum bearing traces of the culture being studied.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

v. To overload or overtax

n. The rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam.

n. A sterile stratum that lies above the stratum being investigated

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

v. To load with too great weight or too much care, etc.

n. The waste which overlies good stone in a quarry.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To load with too great burden or weight; overload; overtask: as, trees overburdened with fruit.

n. Detrital material or rock which has to be removed, as being of no value, in order to get at some valuable substance beneath, which it is intended to mine or quarry: used in reference to quarrying or excavating clay and similar materials.

n. An excessive load; a burden or load greater than should be carried.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

v. burden with too much work or responsibility

v. load with excessive weight

n. the surface soil that must be moved away to get at coal seams and mineral deposits

n. an excessive burden

Word Usage

"The earth above, what we call overburden, it's shifting, because when you remove part of the earth underneath, pressure has to go somewhere because it's going to drop."

Verb Form

overburdened overburdening overburdens

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

charge burden saddle weight burthen

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

burden surcharge overweigh

Rhyme

Words with the same terminal sound

Verdun burden burdon unburden