shouldered

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of shoulder.

   The eldest daughter shouldered most of the household responsibilities for years.

   He had shouldered the costs of the entire trip himself.

   Note

   A regular verb, so one spelling serves both "he shouldered the load" and "the load had been shouldered." Literally it means pushing with the shoulder or hoisting something onto it. Figuratively it means taking on a cost or a duty, as in shouldered the blame or shouldered the bill. Keep it apart from the adjectives: in broad-shouldered or a shouldered arch, nothing has been carried.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having shoulders of a specified kind, or relating to shoulders of that build.

   He was a tall, broad-shouldered figure who filled the entire doorway.

   The coat had a stiff, square-shouldered cut that was popular in the 1980s.

   Note

   A word that almost never stands alone: it is the second half of a compound such as bare-shouldered, broad-shouldered or round-shouldered. The first element does the describing, and the compound keeps its hyphen whether it comes before a noun or after a verb (she was bare-shouldered). Unlike the shoulder-shaped part, this sense concerns a body's build, or how much of it is left uncovered.

3. 3
   adjective

   Fitted with a shoulder-shaped joint or projecting part, such as a step where one section meets another.

   A shouldered tenon seats firmly against the surrounding wood for a strong joint.

   The mechanic replaced the shouldered bolt that positioned the bearing.

   Oppositeunshouldered

   Note

   Here shape matters, not anatomy. The word marks the place where an outline steps out or swells, the way a shoulder stands out from the neck. Builders speak of a shouldered arch, and The Journal of the Linnean Society in 1898 describes shell whorls as "slightly shouldered below the suture." Strictly, a part either is shouldered or is unshouldered, but writers still soften the word with slightly.

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