English

Verb

disburthen ‎(third-person singular simple present disburthens, present participle disburthening, simple past and past participle disburthened)

1. (obsolete) disburden
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &c.:

     He told me he did not come as ordinary of the place, whose business it is to extort confessions from prisoners, for private ends, or for the further detecting of other offenders; that his business was to move me to such freedom of discourse as might serve to disburthen my own mind, and furnish him to administer comfort to me as far as was in his power; and assured me, that whatever I said to him should remain with him, and be as much a secret as if it was known only to God and myself; and that he desired to know nothing of me, but as above to qualify him to apply proper advice and assistance to me, and to pray to God for me.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man:

     I heard my sister's sobs, and thought, happy are women who can weep, and in a passionate caress disburthen the oppression of their feelings; shame and habitual restraint hold back a man.

   • 1897, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre:

     I waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me.

   • 1914, Margaret Bird Steinmetz, Leaves of Life:

     When we have new perception we shall gladly disburthen the memory of the hoarded treasures as old rubbish.