Something that is laden seems to be, or actually is, weighed down by the large amount of whatever it’s carrying: tree branches laden with fruit bend toward the ground; newspaper articles laden with technical jargon are hard to read; and sugar-laden cereal is very, very sweet. Laden has been used as an adjective to describe heavily loaded things for a millennium, but its source is an even older verb: lade, meaning primarily "to load something." Lade today mostly occurs in contexts relating to shipping; its related noun lading may be familiar from the phrase bill of lading, which refers to a document listing goods to be shipped and the terms of their transport. Laden is itself sometimes used as a verb meaning "to load something" (as in "ladening the truck with equipment"), and an adjectival form of that word sometimes appears too, as in "a truck ladened with equipment." Plain old laden is preferred in such cases though: "a truck laden with equipment."
Her band played with a consistent rock ‘n’ roll fury, albeit with steel guitar licks now laden liberally over almost everything… to everything’s benefit.—Chris Willman, Variety, 28 Apr. 2024 While Aurora has a 16-foot diameter, the capsule’s maximum takeoff weight, including the nine occupants, is just 7,700 pounds, similar to a fully laden Chevy Suburban.—Ben Oliver, Robb Report, 11 Apr. 2024 See all Example Sentences for laden
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'laden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Share