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Glite Dictionary
to load down

to load down

1 4.2
To make someone or something carry too many heavy things
  • phrasal verb
  • /loʊd daʊn/
  • Informal
translation icon : cargar
  • The delivery truck was loaded down with boxes, making it difficult to maneuver through the narrow streets.

Examples

  • To the bangles on your wrists, they tie gold ornaments, larger versions of the Hindustani earrings with which you used to load down your earlobes in high school.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • The parking lot was jammed full of dusty cars loaded down with inner tubes, bicycles, and hibachis.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • A dune buggy races toward them, loaded down with three retired petty officers, drunk as hell.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • She had, in fact, watched from the kitchen window as Bill and a big burly guy made several trips back and forth between the truck and the house, loaded down with stuff.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • He looked at her toothpick wrists, loaded down with silver bangles.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • It was turning fall, and the pecan trees were loaded down with hard green pecans, while the spindly branches of the pine trees were thick with large, scaly cones.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • In military terms, the raid didn't amount to much: two German noncoms, six askaris, and fourteen native carriers, all of them loaded down with water, food, ammunition, and one telltale case of dynamite, heading north no more than fifteen miles southwest of Voi.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Blood plasma is ninety percent water, but it's loaded down with all kinds of goodies: glucose, lipids, vitamins, hormones, proteins, enzymes, metabolites, and wastes.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • After the shopping spree, she returned home, loaded down with several heavy bags full of clothes.

  • The hiker trudged up the mountain, loaded down with a heavy backpack and camping gear.

Synonyms

to weight
vsto load down
23 4.4

To press down with a heavy load

burdens so movement of person or thing becomes difficult
to encumber
vsto load down
9 7.6

To make it difficult for someone or something to act

burdens by physical weight rather than by general restriction
to weight down
vsto load down
4 4.1

To make someone or something heavy by giving them more to carry

burdens mainly by excessive items that impede movement
to weigh down
vsto load down
4 3.6

Make something heavier so it bends or sinks

burdens by adding load so movement becomes harder
to burthen
vsto load down
  • Archaic
9.9

To weigh down with a heavy load or worry

is the modern, nonarchaic expression for the same burdening action

Antonyms

to lighten
26 2.5

To make a load or worry feel less heavy

to unburden
6 4.9

To remove a heavy load from someone, physical or emotional, often by talking

How Burdened

to load down
  • Informal
1 4.2
to load
572 1.0
to pack
278 2.3
to fill
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

load down infinitive
loaded down past
loaded down past participle
loading down present participle
loads down third person singular

Morphology

load + down

The sense 'to burden or weigh down' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'load' (a burden/put a burden on) combined with 'down' (toward a lower/more loaded state) yields the idea of putting a heavy load on someone or something. This composition follows a common verb+particle pattern and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts should be able to infer the overall meaning.

Etymology

Load down comes from the simple picture of piling heavy things onto a person, animal, or cart — load (to put things on) and down (onto them). That's why someone who is loaded down is 'weighed down' and finds it hard to move, so the phrase means 'to burden with extra weight'.