beast of burden

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beast of burden

n. pl. beasts of burden

An animal, such as a donkey, ox, or elephant, used for transporting loads or doing other heavy work.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

beast of burden

an animal, such as a donkey or ox, used for carrying loads

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

beast′ of bur′den

an animal used for carrying heavy loads or pulling heavy equipment, as a donkey, mule, or ox.

[1795–1805]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

beast of burden - an animal such as a donkey or ox or elephant used for transporting loads or doing other heavy work

jument

work animal - an animal trained for and used for heavy labor

pack animal, sumpter - an animal (such as a mule or burro or horse) used to carry loads

Translations

بهيمة

soumar

juhtakantojuhtakuormajuhta

bête de somme

bestia bestia da soma

lastdier

burro de carga

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References in classic literature ?

Why sufficeth not the beast of burden, which renounceth and is reverent?

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The strangest thing of all was that those twenty-four donkeys, instead of being iron-shod like any other beast of burden, had on their feet laced shoes made of leather, just like the ones boys wear.

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The elephant, which its owner had reared, not for a beast of burden, but for warlike purposes, was half domesticated.

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Kolk gave me a sign to his father--a lidi, or beast of burden, crudely scratched upon a bit of bone, and be-neath the lidi a man and a flower; all very rudely done perhaps, but none the less effective as I well knew from my long years among the primitive men of Pellucidar.

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Ca- pable of high attainments as an intellectual and moral being--needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to make him an orna- ment to society and a blessing to his race--by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless!

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"A little trip to Fredericksburg would do me no great harm," thought he; "for I, poor beast of burden that I am, have so much to annoy me, that I don't know what a good appetite is.

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The prison, the insane asylum, the squalid chamber of the almshouse, the manufactory where the demon of machinery annihilates the human soul, and the cotton field where God's image becomes a beast of burden; to these and every other scene where man wrongs or neglects his brother, the apostles of humanity have penetrated.

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The overweighted beast of burden, or the overweighted slave, can for certain instants shift the physical load, and find some slight respite even in enforcing additional pain upon such a set of muscles or such a limb.

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But he never thought of it, except when he was dragged to it--he lived like a dumb beast of burden, knowing only the moment in which he was.

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Well beaten that day, Beast Of Burden was then tried over fences to no avail and has been on and off the track since.

Impulsive's star can rise at Exeter

We came here with very high hopes for Beast Of Burden and he unseated his jockey, and then the horses were just not right.

Curtis eyeing more good prizes with Outcome

Beast Of Burden was in front when unseating his rider at the second-last at Chepstow in October on his fencing bow.