overburden
Americanverb (used with object)
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overburdens,
present (3rd person singular)
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overburdened,
past participle, past
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overburdening
present participle
noun
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an excessive burden.
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Also called burden, capping. Mining. waste earth and rock covering a mineral deposit.
verb
noun
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an excessive burden or load
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geology the sedimentary rock material that covers coal seams, mineral veins, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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overburdensimple
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overburdenssimple
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have overburdenedperfect
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has overburdenedperfect
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am overburdeningprogressive
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are overburdeningprogressive
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is overburdeningprogressive
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have been overburdeningperfect progressive
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has been overburdeningperfect progressive
Past
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overburdenedsimple
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had overburdenedperfect
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was overburdeningprogressive
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were overburdeningprogressive
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had been overburdeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overburden
Explanation
When you give someone too much to carry, you overburden them. Don't overburden yourself with too much gear in your hiking backpack, or you'll never make it up the mountain! You can literally overburden someone, which you do whenever you ask them to hold too much weight: "Let me carry some of those books. I don't want you to overburden yourself" There's also a figurative way to overburden another person, by pressuring them or making them work too hard: "If the budget cuts go through and school aides are laid off, it will overburden teachers."
Vocabulary lists containing overburden
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the end, some 125 took the offer, threatening to overburden a corps already struggling to inspect even a sliver of the nation’s 130,000 licensed firearms dealers.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
Override foes said a hefty property tax jump would overburden residents, particularly seniors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
People, the report says, were deterred from accessing health care because they did not want to overburden the NHS.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026
Even so, to overburden a few food metaphors, there are a lot of flavors at play in Healy’s poignant, surreal family drama.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 6, 2023
I helped my parents carry their tools, and they walked ahead so straight, each carrying a basket or a hoe not to overburden me, their tears falling privately.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
He occasionally overburdens the reader with minutiae of political and organizational rivalries and is more workman than stylist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
This simultaneously overburdens and disempowers the lower courts.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2025
That means tools such as vaccines will be prioritized; but in countries where dengue is endemic, the rainy season completely overburdens their health systems and what they desperately need are treatments, said Crockett.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 4, 2023
Laura Cantrell is an emphatic single-syllable rhymer, a classic-minded country singer who never overburdens a song: Her last album was a collection of Kitty Wells covers, and that’s about as contemporary as her tastes run.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2014
Though Strauss treats his voices with more consideration in "Der Rosenkavalier" than in his tragedies, he still so overburdens them that the words are distinguishable only at intervals.
From A Second Book of Operas by Henry Edward Krehbiel
"I think the process is for profit, not for justice - it won't actually solve the issue of littering, and now the justice system is being overburdened," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The industry went through a difficult time in the 2010s because of overburdened balance sheets, and now many companies are staying lean to be flexible for the future.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
State courts, which handle about 97% of all cases in the country, are particularly overburdened and have fewer resources.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
Drug companies launched these discount sites for uninsured patients years ago, hoping to foster the impression that they cared about patients overburdened by their list prices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
Some said that picketing had become “little less than criminal” and called it the most outrageous of the “foolish, childish methods you have used trying to harass our overburdened president.”
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
As an advocate for better food in schools and hospitals, she sees her love of “cheats” as a tool to help institutions create better meals without overburdening their staff.
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2024
While retailers and shop workers have welcomed the anticipated proposals, a civil liberties group has raised concerns about criminalising people struggling to make ends meet and overburdening the prison system.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2024
Its creators wanted to avoid overburdening the Weather Service’s computing system, so it does not include as many variables as a private company’s proprietary one might, he said.
From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2024
“We’re going to see an overburdening of our health and social systems,” Aranda said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
There is always danger of giving too much or too little, of carelessness and unsteady requirements, overburdening the children one day, and even forgetting the next day to assign a definite task.
From Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics In the Grades of the Common School by Charles A. (Charles Alexander) McMurry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
