Forms: 1 hladan, (ladan), 3 (Orm.) ladenn, (4 lhade, 6 laade, 7 laid), ? 3, 4– lade. Pa. t. 1 hlód, (once ʓehléod), 3–4 lode; weak 5– laded. Pa. pple. 1 (ʓe)hladen, 4 i-lade, 4–6 (8 Sc. poet.) lade, (6 ladden, Sc. ladin), 4– leden; weak 5 ladyd, 6– laded. [Com. Teut. str. vb.: OE. hladan (hlód, ʓehladen), corresp. to OFris. hlada, OS. hladan (Du. laden), ON. hlaða (Sw. ladda); with consonant-ablaut the word appears in OHG. hladan (G. laden), Goth. (af)hlaþan:—OTeut. *hlaþ-, hlað-:—pre-Teut. *klat-, parallel with *klad- in OSl. klasti to place. The general Teut. senses are those represented by branch I; branch II is peculiar to Eng., but OS. has the sense ‘to put (liquor) into a vessel,’ as a particular application of a sense similar to 2 below. Another derivative of the root is MHG. luot burden, mass, multitude:—OTeut. *hlôþâ; in the OE. hlóð booty, multitude, OLG. hlótha booty, this type seems to have coalesced with OTeut. *hlanþâ.
The pa. t. has from 15th c. been conjugated weak. The pa. pple. is still usually strong when used in the senses of branch I; in those of branch II it is now always weak.]
I. To load.
1. trans. To put the cargo on board (a ship). Also (now only in passive) to load (a vehicle, a beast of burden).
Beowulf (Z.), 896. Sæbat ʓehleod. Ibid., 1897. Þa wæs on sande sæʓeap naca hladen herewædum.
13[?]. Coer de L., 1384. Thrittene schyppys i-lade with hyvys Of bees. Ibid., 1388. Another schyp was laden … With an engyne hyghte Robynet.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 197. A boot þat was so hevy lade wiþ men þat folowede hym þat it sanke doun.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 983. To lade a cart or fill a barwe.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. vi. 211. Our kervalis howis ladis and prymys he With huge charge of siluir.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xii. 12. The chefest that is amonge you, shall lade his shoulders in the darcke, and get him awaye.
1611. Bible, Gen. xlii. 26. They laded their asses with the corne.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 69, ¶ 5. Our Ships are laden with the Harvest of every Climate.
1830. Scott, Demonol., ix. A foreign ship richly laded with wines.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxvi. (1856), 325. A sledge … kept laden to meet emergencies.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 817. He … help’d At lading and unlading the tall barks.
b. To load (a person) with gifts, etc., (a tree, branch) with fruit; to charge or fill abundantly. Now only in pa. pple. laden, loaded, fraught, heavily charged with. † Also, to lade up.
1481. Caxton, Godfrey, iv. 22. Whan he myght fynde the messagers of Charlemayn, he charged and laded them alle with richesses of thoryent. Ibid. (1484), Chivalry, 4. A tree wel laden and charged of fruyte.
1629. Capt. Smith, Trav. & Adv., 9. With every man a bundle of sedge and bavins still throwne before them, so laded up the Lake, as [etc.].
1674. Ray, Collect. Words, Husb., 130. Corn … the earlier it is sown, cæteris paribus, the better laden it is.
1693. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XIII. Acis, 72. Than apples fairer, when the boughs they lade.
1820. Shelley, Sensit. Plant, III. 112. A northern whirlwind … Shook the boughs thus laden.
1847. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), I. 231. Shores laden with all kinds of beauty.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, iv. 67. These … sandstones are laden with a profusion of fossils.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xxiii. 279. Her eyes were laden with tears.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 47. [The air] must have become laden with moisture.
c. To burden, load oppressively; chiefly in immaterial sense. Now only (somewhat arch.) in pa. pple., burdened with sin, sorrow, etc.
1538. Starkey, England, I. ii. 28. Yf we be thys lade wyth ignorance.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. ii. (Arb.), 41. Doth not loue lade you?
1555. Eden, Decades, 159. It is not lawful for any to lade his neighbours waules with rafters.
1602. Life T. Cromwell, II. iii. 93. Lade him with irons.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 123. I … do confesse I haue Bene laden with like frailties.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Rem. (1644), 54. To lade no one man with too much preferment.
1655. Culpepper & Cole, Riverius, XV. vi. 420. Miserable Woman-Kind is commonly laded with … manifold Diseases.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Breath. Devout Soul, 168. Saviour, thy sinner is sufficiently laden, with the burden of his iniquities.
1724. Ramsay, Health, 143. Phimos, who by his livid colour shews Him lade with vile diseases.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 90. Laden with the sin which they had committed.
2. To put or place as a burden, freight or cargo; now only, to ship (goods) as cargo.
Beowulf (Z.), 2775. Him on bearm hlodon bunan and discas sylfes dome.
a. 1000. Riddles, iv. 65 (Gr.). Ic … me [on] hrycʓ hlade, þat ic habban sceal.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 2901 (Gr.). Ongan þa ad hladan.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1409. Ston he dude lade, And lym therto he made.
1472. Waterford Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 309. From the porte that the saide marchandise is lade unto the porte of the said citie.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxviii. 580. Thenne fet he stones & morter in grete plente … and I promyse you that reynawd laded more atones than xv. other dyde.
1542–3. Act 34 & 35. Hen. VIII., c. 9 § 3. No person shall enbote or lade … anie wheate … in anie picard.
1665. Lond. Gaz., No. 16/2. A Legorn ship … bound to Tunis with moneys to lade Corn.
1799. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), III. 347. He had his Vessel seized by the Genoese, when lading wine for our Fleet.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, viii. 261. It is impossible to lade or deliver Cargoes.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. VI. cxiv. 641. The surplus products … must be laden on board the vessels.
b. absol. or intr.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 704. Quhen thai off hay was ladand most bysse.
1611. Bible, Neh. iv. 17. They that bare burdens, with those that laded.
1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 202/1. As many light ships come in the last evening Tyde to lade.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 179. At this High-land of Ariquipa, is good anchoring, where Vessels use to lade.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 450. A pier … at which vessels … lade and unlade.
† 3. To lay a burden of (guilt) upon. Also absol.
1535. Coverdale, Deut. xxii. 8. Make a battlement aboute thy rofe, that thou lade not bloude vpon thine house yf eny man fall therof.
a. 1541. Wyatt, Poet. Wks. (1861), 196. Him seemeth that the shade Of his offence again his force assays By violent despair on him to lade.
† 4. To load or charge (a gun); also, to load (cartridges) in a gun. Obs.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., III. viii. (1810), 569. Going to lade her againę, their Gunner was slaine at his Peece.
1635. Ld. Lindsey, in Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 335/1. To command the Gunners to laid Cartrages.
1690. Mor. Ess. Present Times, vii. 129. Cannon-like, will discharge but once till they are new Laden.
II. To draw water.
5. trans. To draw (water); to take up or remove (water or other fluids) from a river, a vessel, etc., with a ladle, scoop, or by similar means; to bale. † occas. with cogn. obj. (Now chiefly techn. and dial.)
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John iv. 7. Cuom uif of ðær byriʓ to ladanne [Rushw. hladanne] uæter.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John ii. 9. Þa þenas soðlice wiston þe þæt wæter hlodon.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 180. Ænne ealdne munuc wæter hladende.
c. 1200. Ormin, 14044. Gaþ … and ladeþþ upp & bereþþ itt Till þallderrmann onn hæfedd. Ibid., 19313. We lodenn alle twinne ladd Off hiss godnessess welle.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 1475 (Kölbing). Þai … Þe water vp loden þo, Al way bi to & to.
1340. Ayenb., 178. Alsuo ase hit behoueþ ofte þet ssip lhade out þet weter þet alneway geþ in.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 283/2. Ladyn or lay water … vatilo.
c. 1450. Merlin, 37. Thei hadde a-wey the erthe, and fonde the water, and dede it to laden oute.
1530. Palsgr., 600/1. I laade water with a scoup or any other thyng out of a dytche or pytte.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Open. (1677), 8. Then lade forth your liquor and set it a cooling.
1674. Ray, Collect. Words, Smelting Silver, 114. It is laded out and cast into long square bars.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Brewery, The first Wort … must be pumped or laded off into one or more Coolers.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 47. To lade off the Whey clear from Curd.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 585. By lading the glass out of one pot into another … with copper ladles.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ., 332. Out of this underbuck you must lade the ale-wort into the tun-tub.
b. absol. or intr.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl., N. T., II. v. She did not think best to lade at the shallow channel, but runs rather to the well-head.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. v. (1772), I. 142. Or with their hats lade [for fish] in a brooke.
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, I. vi. 279. You must gradually lade out of the second Copper.
† 6. To empty by ‘lading.’ Obs.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1020. Whan a man doth come to the great see for to lade [F. espuisér] it.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. ii. 139. Like one that … chides the Sea … Saying hee’le lade it dry.
1628. Bp. Hall, Old Relig. (1686), 73. We are not they who think to lade the sea with an egg-shell.
† 7. trans. Of a ship: To let in (water). Obs.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. iii. The shyp … was so staunche it myht no water lade.
1530. Palsgr., 601/1. I lade, I take in water, as a shyp or bote that is nat staunched…. This bote ladeth in water a pace.
8. Comb. The verb stem used in comb. with names of vessels used in lading, as lade-† bowl, -bucket, -gallon (dial. gawn, gorn), † -mele [? ME. MELE, bowl], -pail.
1420. Inv., in Linc. Chapter Acc. Bk. A. 2. 30 lf. 69, 1 *ladebolle … 6d.
1891. Hartland Gloss., *Lade-bucket, a small dipping-bucket, used in brewing, &c.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 234. The air sall haue … the best brewing leid, the mask fat, with tub, barrellis, and *laid-gallon.
1881. Leicester Gloss., *Lade-gawn,… any vessel for lading out liquid.
1847. Halliwell, *Lade-gorn, a pail with a long handle to lade water out with. Derb. Also called a lade-pail.
1579. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 401. Bruers measures, as barrells, kilderkins, firkins, runletts, *lademeales, gallons.
1558. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 87. Paid for a vesselle and a *lad payle to putt in lyme.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Late pail … A late-pail (or lade-pail) is commonly used for dipping hot water from a copper, or for making cider.
