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Debt vs Burden - What's the difference?

debt | burden | Related terms |

Debt is a related term of burden.


As nouns the difference between debt and burden

is that debt is an action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another while burden is .

debt

English

(wikipedia debt)

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
  • * 1589 , (William Shakespeare), Henry IV, Part I , act 1, sc. 3,
  • Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
    Of this proud king, who studies day and night
    To answer all the debt he owes to you
    Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
  • * 1850 , (Nathaniel Hawthorne), (The Scarlet Letter) , ch. 14,
  • This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.
  • The state or condition of owing something to another.
  • Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
  • * 1919 , (Upton Sinclair), Jimmie Higgins , ch. 15,
  • Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • (legal) An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due.
  • (Burrill)

    Derived terms

    * bad debt * debt exchange * debt-equity ratio * debt-laden * debt of honor * domestic debt * external debt * foreign debt * in debt * national debt * technical debt

    burden

    English

    (wikipedia burden)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) burden, birden, burthen, birthen, byrthen, from (etyl) byrden, .

    Alternative forms

    * burthen (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A heavy load.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens .
  • A responsibility, onus.
  • A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.
  • The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
  • a ship of a hundred tons burden
  • (mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
  • (metalworking) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
  • (Raymond)
  • A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
  • A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
  • (obsolete, rare) A birth.
  • That bore thee at a burden two fair sons

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To encumber with a burden (in any of the noun senses of the word ).
  • to burden a nation with taxes
  • * Bible, 2 Corinthians viii. 13
  • I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened .
  • * Shakespeare
  • My burdened heart would break.
  • To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).
  • * Coleridge
  • It is absurd to burden this act on Cromwell.
    Derived terms
    * burdensome * beast of burden

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) bordon. See bourdon.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
  • [...] Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
  • * 1846 ,
  • As commonly used, the refrain, or burden , not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.
  • The drone of a bagpipe.
  • (Ruddiman)
  • (obsolete) Theme, core idea.
  • Anagrams

    *