Bur"den, n. [See Burdon.] A club. [Obs.] Spenser.
Bur"den*er (&?;), n. One who loads; an oppressor.
Bur"den*ous (&?;), a. Burdensome. [Obs.] "Burdenous taxations." Shak.
Bur"den*some (&?;), a. Grievous to be borne; causing uneasiness or fatigue; oppressive.
The debt immense of endless gratitude
So burdensome.
Milton.
Syn. -- Heavy; weighty; cumbersome; onerous; grievous; oppressive; troublesome.
-- Bur"den*some*ly, adv. -- Bur"den*some*ness, n.
Bur"dock (&?;), n. [Bur + dock the plant.] (Bot.) A genus of coarse biennial herbs (Lappa), bearing small burs which adhere tenaciously to clothes, or to the fur or wool of animals.
The common burdock is the Lappa officinalis.
Bur"don (&?;), n. [See Bourdon.] A pilgrim's staff. [Written also burden.] Rom. of R.
Bu"reau (&?;), n.; pl. E. Bureaus (&?;), F. Bureaux (&?;). [F. bureau a writing table, desk, office, OF., drugget, with which a writing table was often covered, equiv. to F. bure, and fr. OF. buire dark brown, the stuff being named from its color, fr. L. burrus red, fr. Gr. &?; flame-colored, prob. fr. &?; fire. See Fire, n., and cf. Borel, n.] 1. Originally, a desk or writing table with drawers for papers. Swift.
2. The place where such a bureau is used; an office where business requiring writing is transacted.
3. Hence: A department of public business requiring a force of clerks; the body of officials in a department who labor under the direction of a chief.
On the continent of Europe, the highest departments, in most countries, have the name of bureaux; as, the Bureau of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In England and America, the term is confined to inferior and subordinate departments; as, the "Pension Bureau," a subdepartment of the Department of the Interior. [Obs.] In Spanish, bureo denotes a court of justice for the trial of persons belonging to the king's household.
4. A chest of drawers for clothes, especially when made as an ornamental piece of furniture. [U.S.]
Bureau system. See Bureaucracy. -- Bureau Veritas, an institution, in the interest of maritime underwriters, for the survey and rating of vessels all over the world. It was founded in Belgium in 1828, removed to Paris in 1830, and reëstablished in Brussels in 1870.
Bu*reau"cra*cy (&?;), n. [Bureau + Gr. &?; to be strong, to govern, &?; strength: cf. F. bureaucratie.] 1. A system of carrying on the business of government by means of departments or bureaus, each under the control of a chief, in contradiction to a system in which the officers of government have an associated authority and responsibility; also, government conducted on this system.