Word.ws English Dictionary

underburdened

underburdened is the simple past and past participle of underburden.

Adjective

underburdened (comparative more underburdened, superlative most underburdened)

  1. Not having sufficient work.
    • Tasks may be taken from the overburdened and given to the underburdened; certain tasks may be shared; some additional (new) tasks may be assigned the underburdened; perhaps employees who are overburdened can have some of their tasks simplified, combined with others, or outright eliminated.1989, Philip C. Grant, Multiple Use Job Descriptions, →ISBN
  2. Having too powerful an explosive for the amount of rock broken up, resulting in a risk of igniting dust and gasses.
    • Probably one or more of the holes was underburdened, causing an ignition of methane and coal dust.1960, Bulletin - Issues 586-595, page 265
    • Detonation of underburdened or overburdened explosive charges is extremely dangerous.1984, Employment Safety and Health Guide, page 7249

Meaning of underburden

Verb

underburden (third-person singular simple present underburdens, present participle underburdening, simple past and past participle underburdened)

  1. To give too light a burden; to assign less than a fair share.
    • In reality, the levels of work varied: some internationals seemed overburdened with tasks and responsibility, some seemed underburdened, and some faced apparently just the right amount of work.2007, Kimberley Coles, Democratic Designs, →ISBN
  2. To assign less work than someone or something is capable of.
    • If a man is overburdened, which is the true cause of complaint, or underburdened, which is the modern cause of complaint, he may seek redress; but he alone who is overburdened or underburdened is authorised to seek redress.1826, David Dalrymple, Mungo Ponton Brown, Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session: From 1766 to 1791

See all 3 meanings of underburden

Forms of underburdened

comparativemore underburdened
superlativemost underburdened

Questions about underburdened

What does underburdened mean?
Underburdened means not having sufficient work.
What is underburdened the simple past and past participle of?
Underburdened is the simple past and past participle of underburden.
What part of speech is underburdened?
Underburdened is an adjective.

Words near underburdened in the dictionary

  1. underbuilds
  2. underbuilt
  3. underbum
  4. underbums
  5. underburden
  6. underburdened
  7. underburdening
  8. underburdens
  9. underburied
  10. underburies
  11. underburn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underburdened (page history and authors); underburden (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “underburdened.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underburdened. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.