overburden
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Verb[edit]
overburden (third-person singular simple present overburdens, present participle overburdening, simple past and past participle overburdened)
- To overload or overtax.
- 2023 January 11, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Division over 5.9% increase in regulated rail fares”, in RAIL, number 974, page 16:
- He said the increase would avoid overburdening taxpayers who have subsidised the railways by £31 billion since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Translations[edit]
to overload or overtax
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Noun[edit]
overburden (plural overburdens)
- (geology) The rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam.
- Synonym: mullock
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 163:
- Such rocks have been changed by baking in a terrestrial pressure-cooker. Then they have been disinterred: kilometres of overburden must have been removed.
- (archaeology) A sterile stratum that lies above the stratum being investigated