burbot 
tries it is quite generally known as the loth or lochr and 
burbot-eel (b'er'bgt-el), H. A Yorkshire name 
of the eel-pout, Sources viriparus. 
bur-brick (ber'brik), . Same as bur 1 , 5. 
burdt, burdet, >< Variants of bird 2 . 
Burdach's columns. See column. 
burdalane, burdalone (bur'da-lan, -Ion), n. 
[Appar. < burd, offspring, + alane, alone.] The 
last child surviving in a family. [Scotch.] 
And Newton Gordon, birdalone, 
And Dalgatie both stout and keen, 
And gallant Veitch upon the field, 
A braver face was never seen. 
Minstrelsy of Scottish Border. 
burdalisaundert, Same as bordalisaunder. 
burdalone, . See burdalane. 
burdasht, berdasht, [Origin obscure.] 1. 
A fringed sash worn by gentlemen in the seven- 
teenth century. Steele.Z. A lace cravat. 
burdelaist, . [F. Bordelais, the district around 
Bordeaux.] A sort of grape. Johnson. 
724 
Hence 2. Figuratively, to load; oppress with 
anything which is borne with difficulty or trou- 
ble; surcharge: as, to burden a nation with 
taxes; to burden the memory with details. 
If your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit down 
to consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the 
passage . . . and ere you can rise up again, "ill //><//. 
you with blessings. Kim-i-mn, Character. 
3. To lay or impose upon one, as a load, bur- 
den, or charge. [Bare.] 
It is absurd to burden this act on Cromwell and his 
party. 
burden 2 t, burthen 2 ! (ber'dn, -ran), n. r< ME. 
burden, birthen, also burthern, act of child-bear- 
ing, altered, by confusion with burden 1 , from 
"burther, < AS. byrthor, beorthor, child-bearing 
(cf. gebyrd, birth), < beran, bear: see birth 1 and 
burden 1 .] The act of bearing children ; a birth. 
If tbon be'st the man 
Shot., C. of E., v. i. 
the same, with diff. suffix, as MD. borde = OHG. 
bitrdi, MHGr. burde, biirde, Gr. biirde = Icel. byr- 
dhr, mod. byrdki = Sw. borda = Dan. byrde = 
Goth, baurikei, a burden ; cf . Gr. QAprof, fopriov, 
a burden), < beran (pp. boren), etc., bear: see 
bear 1 .] 1. That which is borne or carried; a 
load. 
Let them break your backs with burthens. 
Shat., 2 Hen. VI., iv. 8. 
The oak, upon the windy hill, 
Its dark green burthen upward heaves. 
Whittier, Mogg Megone, ii. 
Hence 2. That which is borne with labor or 
difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or 
oppressive ; also, an incumbrance of any kind. 
Many a Man lives a burden to the Earth. 
Milton, Areopagitica, p. e. 
Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, . . . 
To all my friends a burden grown. 
Sirift, The Dean's Complaint (translated). 
The burthen of an honour 
I'nto which she was not born. 
Tennyson, Lord of Burleigh. 
3. In England, a quantity of certain commodi- 
ties: as, a burden of gad-steel (that is, 120 or 
180 pounds). 4. The capacity of a ship; the 
quantity or number of tons of freight a vessel 
will carry: as, a ship of 600 tons burden. 5. 
In mining, the tops or heads of stream-work, 
overlying the stream of tin, and needing to be 
first cleansed. 6. The charge of a blast-fur- 
nace. 
To avoid the central accumulation of fuel and the lat- 
eral preponderance of burden (ore and flux) thus promoter. 
an inverted annular funnel is suspended underneath the 
lower orifice of the cup. Encyc. Brit., XIII. 308. 
Burden of proof, in law, the obligation resting upon one 
of the parties to an action to establish an alleged fact by 
proof, under penalty of having judgment given against 
him, according to the presumption recognized by the law 
of evidence in case he adduces no proof. The burden of 
proof is said to be shifted when the party upon whom it 
lay has produced sufficient evidence to turn the presump- 
tion in his favor. Two circumstances are essential to the 
existence of a burden of proof : first, there must be a ques- 
tion of fact between two parties before a tribunal which 
will render a decision whether there is any particular evi- 
dence or not; and second, this decision must \K governed 
by rules of presumption, more or less artificially extended 
so as to lead to a determinate result in every case. In un- 
forensic controversy there will or will not be a burden of 
proof, according as these conditions are or are not fulfilled. 
In reasonings, as contradistinguished from disputations, 
if they relate to policy, there is nothing to which the term 
burden of proof is applicable ; for the decision will be based 
on considerations of likelihood, economy, safety, etc., but 
never on formal rules of presumption. A general habit 
may be followed when decided reasons fail, in questions 
both of policy and of morals ; but the phrase burden of 
proof is not employed in such cases. A speculative or 
scientific inquiry, on the other hand, cannot be closed until 
satisfactory evidence has been obtained or cariosity dies 
out ; so that the term burden of proof has no meaning in 
such a connection. Yet an individual reasoner who, being 
impatient of doubt, insists on adopting an answer to each 
question, however blank our ignorance of the facts, must 
often resort to a merely formal presumption ; and each per- 
sons say that there is a burden of proof upon any possible 
advocate of the hypothesis which they propose to reject 
withontprooL The term is also used in cases where the ab- 
sence of observations of a certain kind is itself a significant 
fact. Thus, we may say that there is a burden of proof 
upon the evolutionist* to explain our not finding forms 
intermediate between recognized types ; that is to say, the 
non-occurrence of such observations is a fact to be taken 
into account = 8yn. Weight, incumbrance, clog, incubus, 
drag ; freight, lading, cargo. 
burden 1 , burthen 1 (ber'dn, -THU), r. t. [< bur- 
den 1 , burthen 1 , n.] 1. To load; lay a heavy 
load on; encumber with weight. 
I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened. 
2 Cor. riii. 13. 
bourdon = Sp. bordon = Pg. bordeto = It. bordone 
(Florio), a humming, buzzing, a drone or non- 
working bee, a bumblebee, also bass in music, 
refrain, < ML. burdo(n-), a drone, a long organ- 
pipe; origin uncertain. See bourdon 2 .] 1. The 
bass in music. 2. In music: (a) The refrain 
or recurring chorus at the end of the stanzas of 
a ballad or song ; a refrain. 
And far the echoing aisles prolong 
The awful burden of the song. 
Scott, i. of L. M., vi. 31. 
(6) The drone of a bagpipe, (c) The song to 
which a dance is danced when there are no in- 
struments. 
Foot it featly here and there ; 
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. 
Shat., Tempest, L 2. 
3. That which is often repeated; a subject on 
which one dwells ; the mam topic : as, this sub- 
ject was the burden of all his talk To Dear a 
burden, to support the upper voice or voices by singing 
an under part as an accompaniment. Chappell. 
This sompnour bar to him a stif burdoun. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. S73. 
burden 4 t (ber'dn), n. [< ME. burdon, bordon, 
bourdon, < OF. bordon, bourdon, a staff: see 
] A club. Spenser. 
(ber'dn-er),. One who burdens ; an 
oppressor. 
burdenoust, burthenoust (ber'dn-, ber'THn- 
us), a. [< burden 1 , burthen 1 , + -ous.] 1. Bur- 
densome ; grievous ; heavy to be borne ; oppres- 
sive: as, "the very burthenous earth," Drayton, 
Polyolbion, viii. 112. 
And with his burdenout blowes him sore did overlade. 
Spenter, V. Q., V. xu. 19. 
Xor let that be light to thee, which to me Is so burden- 
out. Sir P. Sidney. 
His maintenance is burdcnous and chargeable vnto mee. 
Ilalduyt'f Voyage*, L 244. 
2. Cumbersome; useless. 
To sit idle on the household hearth, 
A burdenwu drone. Milton, H. A., L 567. 
burdensome, burthensome (ber'dn-, ber'THn- 
snm), a. [< burden 1 , burthen 1 , + -mme.] 1. 
Weighing like a heavy burden ; grievous to be 
borne: causing uneasiness or fatigue ; oppres- 
sive; heavy; wearisome: as, " burthensome ex- 
actions," Hattam. 
The debt immense of endless gratitude, 
So burdensome. Milton, P. L, ir. 53. 
If the Peoples demanding were so bunFjuome to him, 
what was his denial) and delay of Justice to them? 
Milton, Eikonoklastes, rL 
The inferior and tim nmmmn office* of society. 
Burke, Abridg. of Eng. Hist., L 2. 
2f . Able to carry burdens or cargoes. 
For sale, Freight or charter, A strong, burthcnsonu Brig 
of 160 tons. Mauackutettt Mercury, April 29, 1796. 
= Svn, 1. Onerous, troublesome, fatiguing, bard to bear. 
burdensomely, burthensomely (ber'dn-, ber'- 
THn-sum-li), adr. In a burdensome manner. 
That as few employments a* possible may be >/ 
1 rexationsjy interfered with. ./. S. Mill. 
burdensomeness burthensomeness (ber'dn-, 
Tr^^uL nfs;. ^T^SyTbeing burl 
densome; heaviness; oppressiveness. 
bnrdot, burdont, . [< LL. bnrOo(n-), also frur- 
dot, a mule.] A mule bred of a horse and a 
she-ass ; a h i ri n y . 
burdock (ber'dok), n. [< bur 1 + dock 1 .'] The 
common name of the Arctium Laji/ia, a coarse, 
broad-leafed biennial weed, natural order Com- 
bureaucratic 
Cite, having the numerous awns of the invo- 
al bracts hooked at the tip. it is a native of 
the old world, but widely naturalized in America, and 
cultivated as a vegetable in Japan. It is in popular re- 
pute as a diaphoretic and diuretic, and as a remedy for 
rheumatism, catarrh, cutaneous diseases, etc. Lesser 
burdock, a somewhat similar, troublesome weed, Xnn- 
thimn ttruinarimn. Prairie burdock, one of the rosin- 
weeds, SUphium terebinthiiiflcewn, found on the western 
prairies of the t'nited States. 
burdock-grass (ber'dok-gras), n. The Tragux 
racemosim, a low European grass of which the 
glume or seed-husk is covered with short stout 
hooks. 
burdont, See burdo. 
burdount, ". A Middle English form of burden 3 . 
bur-dresser (ber'dres'er), n. A tool for rub- 
bing or dressing the furrows of a burstone or 
millstone ; a millstone-dresser. Also written 
buhr-dresser. 
bur-drill (ber'dril), n. A small dental drill 
with a bur-shaped head. Also called bur. 
bur-driver (ber'dn'ver), n. A projection on 
the spindle of a millstone, which acts upon the 
bail, and drives the stone. Also written buhr- 
driver. 
bureau (bu'ro), n. ; pi. bureaus or bin 
(-roz). [F. bureau, pi. bureaux, an office, a desk 
or writing-table, a court, a chest of drawers, 
orig. a kind of coarse brownish or russet stuff 
with which writing-tables were covered, < OF. 
burel, a coarse woolen stuff: see barrel, borel 1 .] 
1. A desk or writing-table with drawers for 
papers; an escritoire. Swift. 2. A chest of 
drawers for holding clothes and other articles. 
Bureaus at the present day are commonly made with an 
adjustable mirror standing upon them. This Is a compar- 
atively modern practice, due to a combination of the func- 
tions of the chest of drawers and the toilet-table. 
3. An office or place where business is trans- 
acted. 4. A department of government for the 
transaction of public business. In England the 
term Is confined to inferior and suliordiiiate departments, 
and in the t'nited States to certain subdivisions of some of 
the executive departments. Bureau of Education. See 
education. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, an of- 
fice of the Treasury Department oftlie I'liited States gov- 
ernment, whose head, called the chief of the Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing, is charged with the engraving and 
printing of all bonds, Treasury notes, national-bank notes, 
certificates, internal-revenue stamps, etc., of the I'nitc'l 
states. Bureau of Military Justice, a division of 
the War Department of the I nited States government. 
the office of the Judge-Advocate General. Bureau of 
Ordnance. See .Vp/ hejtartrneii}, under department. 
Bureau Of Statistics, an office of the Treasury Depart- 
ment of the I' nited States government, whose bead, called 
the chief of the Bureau of .Statistics, is charged with the 
publication of reports conveying statistical information as 
to commerce and navigation, imports and exports, immi- 
gration, shipping, etc. A national Bnreau of Labor Sta- 
tistics was established in 1884. Home of the State govern- 
ments have offices corresponding more or less closely to 
one or the other of these. Freedmen's Bureau. In L . S. 
hi*t., the name popularly given to the Bureau of Refugees, 
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, an office of the War De- 
partment of the United States created in 1865 to care for 
the interest* of the emancipated negroes of the South, es- 
pecially with respect to education, assignment of hind*, 
and protection of civil rights. It ceased to exist in 1S72. 
Signal-service Bureau, a bureau of the War Department 
presided over by the chief signal-officer, having charge of 
military signaling, and of the collection and comparison of 
meteorological observations throughout the country, and 
the publication of predictions of the weather based upon 
them. Weather Bureau, the popular name of the Sig- 
nal-service Bureau. 
bureaucracy (bu-ro'kra-si), n. [< F. bureau- 
cratic, < bureau + -crdtie, E. -craey, govern- 
ment, as in aristocracy, democracy, etc.] 1. 
Government by bureaus ; specifically, excessive 
multiplication of, and concentration of power 
in, administrative bureaus. The principle >,f bu- 
reaucracy tends to official interference in many of the prop- 
erty private affairs of life, and to the inefficient and ob- 
structive performance of duty through minute subdivision 
of functions, Inflexible formality, and pride of place. 
Republicanism and bureaucracy are Incompatible ex- 
istence*. W. R. Greg, MUc. Essays, 2d ser., p. 55. 
2. The body of officials administering such bu- 
reaus, considered collectively. 
Count Roger found a machinery of taxation in full work- 
nig order, officers acquainted with the resource* of the 
couiitlj, book* and schedules constructed on the principle* 
of strictest accuracy, a whole bureaucracy, in fact, ready 
to hi* use. ./. A. Symondi, Italy and Greece, p. li 
bureaucrat (bu'ro-krat), n. [< F. bureaucrate, 
< bureau + -crate, E. -crat as in aristocrat, 
democrat, etc.] An advocate or supporter of 
bureaucracy; also, a member of a bureaucracy. 
Also called bureaucratist. 
The genuine bureaucrat has * wholesome dread of for- 
mal responsibility, and generally trie* to avoid it by Uk 
ing all matter* oat of the hands of hi* subordinates, and 
paving then on to the higher *atborltiea. 
U. M. WaOaee, Russia, p. MB. 
bureaucratic (bu-ro-krafik;, . [< K. liurtan- 
,,: <.t-f I,,* ma -if.] Relating to 
or of the nature of bureaucracy. 
