loads

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of load.

   The old bridge can barely support the heavy loads crossing it daily.

   Farmers hauled loads of grain to the market before the rain.

   Note

   The plural keeps every literal use of load: cargo hauled at one time, weights a bridge must bear, batches of washing put through the machine. It also carries a casual meaning of its own. Loads of simply means a great many or a great deal (loads of time, loads of friends), with no weight involved. Drop the of and you reach the informal adverb. The figurative worry stays singular, as in a load off one's mind.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of load.

   The dockworker loads crates onto the ship at dawn.

   The hunter loads his rifle quietly before stepping into the blind.

   Note

   Like every form of the verb, it lets either the container or the contents be the object: she loads the van, or she loads boxes into the van. It can also stand without an object, of a vehicle taking on cargo, as in the ferry loads at the north pier. With a firearm, the object is the weapon itself: he loads the rifle, never the bullets into a loaded gun's barrel by default.

3. 3
   adverbcolloquialUK

   To a great extent or amount; a great deal.

   She helped me loads with the move last weekend.

   They enjoyed the trip loads, despite the constant rain.

   Similarlots, heaps, greatly, enormously

   Note

   A casual intensifier, chiefly British, that does the work of much or a lot. Besides following a verb (helped me loads), it sits comfortably before a comparative: loads worse than the original, loads less expensive in Thailand. That pattern mirrors much worse and far cheaper. It belongs to relaxed speech and informal writing. In formal prose, much or far is the safer choice.

   The sequel is loads worse than the original

   The price of living is loads less expensive in Thailand than in Singapore

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