load
verb
- place an object for transport
- cause to be burdened
- fix, set up to cheat
- transfer data from one place to another
noun
- unit of amount
- amount of computational work performed
- Mesopotamian unit of mass (30.2kg ±1.2kg)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /loʊd/ / /ləʊd/
noun
Etymology: Acronym of living online all day.
- A person that spends all day online. The term was originally used in the late 1980s to describe users on free Q-Link (later America Online) accounts who never signed off the system at great expense to the company.
“She never logs off; she is a real LOAD!”
verb
Etymology: The sense of “burden” first arose in the 13th century as a secondary meaning of Middle English lode, loade, which had the main significance of “way, course, journey”, from Old English lād (“course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laidō (“leading, way”), Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, go forth, die”). Cognate with Middle Low German leide (“entourage, escort”), German Leite (“line, course, load”), Swedish led (“way, trail, line”), Icelandic leið (“way, course, route”). As such, load is a doublet of lode, which has preserved the older meaning. Most likely, the semantic extension of the Middle English substantive arose by conflation with the (etymologically unrelated) verb lade; however, Middle English lode occurs only as a substantive; the transitive verb load (“to charge with a load”) is recorded only in the 16th century (frequently in Shakespeare), and (except for the participle laden) has largely supplanted lade in modern English. For the meaning development from PIE, compare Latin carrus (whence carry) akin to currō.
- To put a load on or in (a means of conveyance or a place of storage).
“The dock workers refused to load the ship.”
- To place in or on a conveyance or a place of storage.
“The longshoremen loaded the cargo quickly.”
“He loaded his stuff into his storage locker.”
- To put a load on something.
“The truck was supposed to leave at dawn, but in fact we spent all morning loading.”
- To receive a load.
“The truck is designed to load easily.”
“[I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.”
- To be placed into storage or conveyance.
“The containers load quickly and easily.”
- To fill (a firearm or artillery) with munition.
“I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. I had forgotten to load the gun.”
- To insert (an item or items) into an apparatus so as to ready it for operation, such as a reel of film into a camera, sheets of paper into a printer etc.
“Now that you've loaded the film [into the camera], you're ready to start shooting.”
“Now that you've loaded the camera [with film], you're ready to start shooting.”
- To fill (an apparatus) with raw material.
“The workers loaded the blast furnace with coke and ore.”
- To be put into use in an apparatus.
“The cartridge was designed to load easily.”
- To read (data or a program) from a storage medium into computer memory.
“Click OK to load the selected data.”
- To transfer from a storage medium into computer memory.
“The file took ten minutes to load.”
“This program takes an age to load.”
- To put runners on first, second and third bases
“He walks to load the bases.”
- To tamper with so as to produce a biased outcome.
“You can load the dice in your favour by researching the company before your interview.”
“The wording of the ballot paper loaded the vote in favour of the Conservative candidate.”
- To ask or adapt a question so that it will be more likely to be answered in a certain way.
- To encumber with something negative, to place as an encumbrance.
“The new owners had loaded the company with debt.”
“The new owners loaded debt on the company.”
- To provide in abundance.
“He loaded his system with carbs before the marathon.”
“He loaded carbs into his system before the marathon.”
- To weight (a cane, whip, etc.) with lead or similar.
- To adulterate or drug.
“to load wine”
- To magnetize.
“one oscillation of the loaded magnet,”
- to top up or purchase phone credits