😔 Full of worries 🧳 Carrying a load

heavy-laden

5.5

Carrying a large load, for example snow on branches

adjective
/ˈhɛviˈleɪdən/

: cargado

The heavy-laden truck struggled to climb the steep hill.

Examples

Camels, heavy-laden with saffron and thyme, are sailing through the desert toward her and the other anxious wives waiting on the edge of Ur.

Fiction book (1998)
Her heavy-laden backpack made it difficult for her to hike up the mountain.
The farmer watched as his heavy-laden cart slowly made its way across the field.

Synonyms

heavy

vsheavy-laden

220 1.0

Full of a large amount of something and bending under it

emphasizes actual carrying of a load rather than mere heaviness or fullness

weighed down

vsheavy-laden

Informal

6 4.5

Carrying heavy things or having serious worries that make you feel tired

focuses mainly on literal physical carrying rather than figurative uses

overloaded

vsheavy-laden

3 4.2

Has more than it can safely hold, for example weight, work, or electricity

describes being heavy without the safety or excess concern

loaded down

vsheavy-laden

1 4.1

Carrying a heavy load like bags or boxes

expresses the same physical burden but in a more marked phrase form

overladen

vsheavy-laden

1 7.0

Carrying more weight or things than it can safely hold

means heavy physical burden without implying excess beyond capacity

overburdened

vsheavy-laden

1 5.3

Having more work, duties, or worry than you can handle

is limited to literal physical carrying rather than workloads or responsibilities

burdened

vsheavy-laden

4.3

Carrying a heavy weight that makes moving slow or hard

is the same idea but appears as a hyphenated or literary form

weighted

vsheavy-laden

4.1

Made heavy and hard to move or feeling very tired

restricts meaning to literal physical carrying rather than broader senses

encumbered

vsheavy-laden

7.1

Not able to move easily because of heavy things or too many duties

stresses physical carrying without implying hindrance to movement or action

Antonyms

unencumbered

8 6.8

Free from worries, duties, debts and other things that hold you back

light

1 2.1

With very little luggage when travelling

How Burdened

overloaded

3 4.2

heavy-laden

5.5

loaded

2.6

unencumbered

8 6.8

Surface Forms

heavy-laden positive

Morphology

heavy-laden = heavy + laden (transparent) = heavy + laden

The physical-sense meaning 'carrying a heavy load' is a direct composition of 'heavy' + 'laden'.

Etymology

Heavy-laden comes from two plain parts: heavy ('weighing a lot') and laden ('carrying a load', like the word 'load'). So it gives a clear picture of something or someone literally 'loaded down' and weighed down by a heavy burden.