Disburdens

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Frees someone or something from a physical or emotional load to provide relief
2. Removes a weight or responsibility from a person or object to make things easier
3. Lightens the load or eases pressure by taking away a burden or troublesome weight

Etymology: "Disburdens" is the third-person singular present form of "disburden," which means to relieve someone of a load, whether physical or emotional. The verb is a straightforward compound: the prefix "dis-" added to "burden." That prefix, borrowed through Latin and Old French, carries the sense of reversal or removal, so "disburden" literally means to take a burden away. The base word "burden" has a longer and more physical history than its modern figurative uses suggest. It passed into English from Old French, where it had the same meaning of a load carried on the back, and its ancestors reach back to Latin roots tied to bearing and carrying. English speakers first used "burden" for physical loads, and the figurative sense of an emotional or mental weight developed later from that concrete image.

Synonyms: relieves, unburdens