Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LOAD, n. [Sax. hlad or lade; W. llwyth. See Lade.]

1. A burden; that which is laid on or put in any thing for conveyance. Thus we lay a load on a beast or on a man's shoulders' or on a cart or wagon; and we say, a light load, a heavy load. A load then is indefinite in quantity or weight. But by usage, in some cases, the word has a more definite signification, and expresses a certain quantity or is eight, or as much as is usually carried, or as can be well sustained. Load is never used for the cargo of a ship; this is called loading, lading, freight, or cargo.
2. Any heavy burden; a large quantity borne or sustained. A tree may be said to have a load of fruit upon it.
3. That which is borne with pain or difficulty; a grievous weight; encumbrance, in a literal sense. Jove lightened of its load / Th' enormous mass. – Pope. In a figurative sense, we say, a load of care or grief; a load of guilt or crimes.
4. Weight or violence of blows. – Milton.
5. A quantity of food or drink that oppresses, or as much as can be borne. – Dryden.
6. Among miners, the quantity of nine dishes of ore, each dish being about half a hundred weight. – Encyc. Cyc.