a. [f. BURDEN sb. + -SOME.] Of the nature of a burden; onerous, cumbersome, oppressive, troublesome, wearisome.
1578. Chr. Prayers, in Priv. Prayers (1851), 459. Considering how burthensome crowns and sceptres are.
1611. Bible, Zech. xii. 3. In that day will I make Ierusalem a burdensome stone.
1712. F. T., Meth. Short-Hand, p. iv. Not at all burdensome to the Memory.
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xxiv. (1866), II. 20. A long definition is … burthensome to the memory.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., I. iv. (1876), 39. The tax becomes burdensome.
b. as quasi-sb. Burdensomeness.
1645. Milton, Tetrach. (1851), 204. If our Saviour tooke away ought of law, it was the burdensome of it.
