The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Load \Load\ (l[=o]d), n. [OE. lode load, way; properly the same
   word as lode, but confused with lade, load, v. See Lade,
   Lead, v., Lode.]
   1. A burden; that which is laid on or put in anything for
      conveyance; that which is borne or sustained; a weight;
      as, a heavy load.
      [1913 Webster]

            He might such a load
            To town with his ass carry.           --Gower.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The quantity which can be carried or drawn in some
      specified way; the contents of a cart, barrow, or vessel;
      that which will constitute a cargo; lading.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. That which burdens, oppresses, or grieves the mind or
      spirits; as, a load of care. " A . . . load of guilt."
      --Ray. " Our life's a load." --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A particular measure for certain articles, being as much
      as may be carried at one time by the conveyance commonly
      used for the article measured; as, a load of wood; a load
      of hay; specifically, five quarters.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. The charge of a firearm; as, a load of powder.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Weight or violence of blows. [Obs.] --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (Mach.) The work done by a steam engine or other prime
      mover when working.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. The amount of work that a person, group, or machine is
      assigned to perform; as, the boss distributed the load
      evenly among his employees.
      [PJC]

   9. (Elec.) The device or devices that consume power from a
      power supply.
      [PJC]

   10. (Engineering) The weight or force that a structural
       support bears or is designed to bear; the object that
       creates that force.
       [PJC]

   Load line, or Load water line (Naut.), the line on the
      outside of a vessel indicating the depth to which it sinks
      in the water when loaded.

   Syn: Burden; lading; weight; cargo. See Burden.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Load \Load\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Loaded; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Loading. Loaden is obsolete, and laden belongs to lade.]
   1. To lay a load or burden on or in, as on a horse or in a
      cart; to charge with a load, as a gun; to furnish with a
      lading or cargo, as a ship; hence, to add weight to, so as
      to oppress or embarrass; to heap upon.
      [1913 Webster]

            I strive all in vain to load the cart. --Gascoigne.
      [1913 Webster]

            I have loaden me with many spoils.    --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Those honors deep and broad, wherewith
            Your majesty loads our house.         --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To adulterate or drug; as, to load wine. [Cant]
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To magnetize. [Obs.] --Prior.
      [1913 Webster]

   Loaded dice, dice with one side made heavier than the
      others, so that the number on the opposite side will come
      up oftenest.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

load
    n 1: weight to be borne or conveyed [syn: load, loading,
         burden]
    2: a quantity that can be processed or transported at one time;
       "the system broke down under excessive loads" [syn: load,
       loading]
    3: goods carried by a large vehicle [syn: cargo, lading,
       freight, load, loading, payload, shipment,
       consignment]
    4: an amount of alcohol sufficient to intoxicate; "he got a load
       on and started a brawl"
    5: the power output of a generator or power plant
    6: an onerous or difficult concern; "the burden of
       responsibility"; "that's a load off my mind" [syn: burden,
       load, encumbrance, incumbrance, onus]
    7: a deposit of valuable ore occurring within definite
       boundaries separating it from surrounding rocks [syn: lode,
       load]
    8: the front part of a guided missile or rocket or torpedo that
       carries the nuclear or explosive charge or the chemical or
       biological agents [syn: warhead, payload, load]
    9: electrical device to which electrical power is delivered
    v 1: fill or place a load on; "load a car"; "load the truck with
         hay" [syn: load, lade, laden, load up]
    2: provide (a device) with something necessary; "He loaded his
       gun carefully"; "load the camera" [syn: load, charge]
    3: transfer from a storage device to a computer's memory
    4: put (something) on a structure or conveyance; "load the bags
       onto the trucks"
    5: corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or
       inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients
       with inferior ones; "adulterate liquor" [syn: load,
       adulterate, stretch, dilute, debase]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

263 Moby Thesaurus words for "load":
   abundance, acres, adulterate, affliction, albatross, anxiety, bag,
   baggage, bags, bale, barrel, barrels, bear, bear hard upon,
   bellyful, bitter cup, bitter draft, bitter draught, bitter pill,
   blast, bottle, box, brim, bumper, burden, burden of care,
   burdening, burthen, bushel, can, cankerworm of care, capacity,
   care, cargo, carload, carry, cartload, ceil, charge, charging,
   chock, choke, cock, complement, congest, consignment, convey, cook,
   copiousness, countlessness, cram, crate, cross, crowd,
   crown of thorns, crush, cumber, cumbrance, curse, deadweight,
   debase, detonate, difficulty, disadvantage, discharge, distress,
   doctor, drag, drain, drop, duty, eject, embarrassment, encumber,
   encumbrance, face, fake, feather, fell, fill, fill to overflowing,
   fill up, fire, fire off, flood, freight, freightage, full house,
   full load, full measure, fur, gall, gall and wormwood,
   get up steam, glut, go hard with, go ill with, gobs, goods, gorge,
   grievance, gun, gun for, hamper, handicap, haul, heap, heap up,
   hit, impediment, impedimenta, imposition, inconvenience, incubus,
   incumbency, infliction, inlay, interline, jam, jam up, jam-pack,
   juggle, lade, lading, let fly, let off, liability, lie on, line,
   loading, luggage, lumber, manipulate, mass, millstone, mountain,
   mouthful, much, multitude, numerousness, obligation, ocean, oceans,
   onus, oodles, oppress, oppression, overburden, overfill, overload,
   oversupply, overtax, overtaxing, overweight, overweighting,
   overwhelm, pack, pack away, pack of troubles, pad, parcel, payload,
   peck, peck of troubles, pelt, penalty, pepper, pick off, pile,
   pistol, plant, plenitude, plenty, plug, pocket, pot, potshoot,
   potshot, press hard upon, pressure, prime, profusion, quantities,
   quantity, ram in, responsibility, rest hard upon, retouch, riddle,
   rig, sack, saddle, saddle with, saddling, salt, satiate, saturate,
   sea, sea of troubles, set, ship, shipload, shipment, shoot,
   shoot at, shoot down, skinful, slew, snipe, snootful, sophisticate,
   sorrow, spate, squeeze, stack, steam up, store, stow, strike,
   stuff, superabundance, supercharge, superfluity, superincumbency,
   surcharge, surfeit, swamp, take a potshot, tamper with, task, tax,
   taxing, thorn, tons, top off, torpedo, trailerload, trainload,
   transport, trouble, truckload, try one, vanload, volume, wad, wads,
   wainscot, warhead, warm up, waters of bitterness, weigh,
   weigh down, weigh heavy on, weigh on, weigh upon, weight,
   white elephant, wind, wind up, woe, world, worlds, worry



The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

load

   1. To copy data (often program code to be run) into
   memory, possibly parsing it somehow in the process.
   E.g. "WordPerfect can't load this RTF file - are you sure
   it didn't get corrupted in the download?"  Opposite of
   save.

   2. The degree to which a computer, network, or other
   resource is used, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the
   maximum available.  E.g. "What kind of CPU load does that
   program give?", "The network's constantly running at 100%
   load".  Sometimes used, by extension, to mean "to increase the
   level of use of a resource".  E.g. "Loading a spreadsheet
   really loads the CPU".  See also: load balancing.

   3. To install a piece of software onto a system.
   E.g. "The computer guy is gonna come load Excel on my laptop
   for me".  This usage is widely considered to be incorrect.

   (2002-07-02)