live load

American

[lahyv] / laɪv /

noun

Engineering.

load11

live load British

/ laɪv /

noun

Also called: superload. a variable weight on a structure, such as moving traffic on a bridge Compare dead load

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of live load

First recorded in 1865–70

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.

Drive to a shipper or receiver and either "drop and hook" or "live load" or "live unload".

From The Guardian • Jul. 11, 2013

The legs are like towers at each end of a bridge, the backbone is an arched cantilever system suspended from the towers, the chest and abdomen constitute the "live load."

From Time Magazine Archive

And that did not include the 200,000 pounds of additional live load that would be added as passengers filled the cars.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

The tunnels are lighter than the materials which they displace even when the weight of the heavy live load is included.

From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Paper No. 1150 by Raymond, Charles W.

The four cables support a dead load of 7140 tons and a live load of 4017 tons.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023