"freighted with meaning"

Posted by R. Berg on November 23, 2001

In Reply to: "Freighted with meaning" posted by ESC on November 22, 2001

: In the local newpaper on Thanksgiving Day, it says the holiday is "freighted with meaning" because of Sept. 11. I have only seen "fraught with meaning." (World Book Dictionary -- adjective, of a vessel laden; noun, Scottish, burden, load).

: Anyway. We are having a Happy (Vegetarian) Thanksgiving. Ditto what Bruce said. Hope your holiday is happy too. Even if you do eat turkey.

The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for "freighted" as a participle and a participial adjective: "Laden with cargo." Some examples:
Literal: "Shyppes frayghted wyth gossampine cotton and silke clothes" .
Figurative: "Epistles which . . . were freighted with the doom and destiny of countless millions" .