Abstract: For the rock mass of roadbed slope, its long-term stability is often compromised due to the lasting impact of both water-drying cycle and unidirectional load under rainfall. This study therefore attempts to explore the effect of cyclic water intrusion and load on the creep patterns of rock mass. We conducted creep tests on loaded yellow sandstone under cyclic water intrusion and analyzed uniaxial creep deformation of yellow sandstone under cyclic water intrusion and load. We then proposed the damage variables of mechanical properties of yellow sandstone under the coupling action of cyclic water intrusion and load and established a nonlinear creep constitutive model of yellow sandstone by improving the Burgers creep damage model. Results show that: ① the instantaneous deformation and steady creep deformation of yellow sandstone approximately increased under the combined effect of cyclic water encroachment and overburden load. With increasing overburden load, the long-term strength of yellow sandstone decreased by 9.64 %, 8.83 % and 7.07 %, respectively. This indicates that overburden load could weaken the erosion of cyclic water encroachment on yellow sandstone; ② a nonlinear creep constitutive model was proposed by drawing on the traditional Burgers model, which took into account the initial damage. Its applicability was verified regarding the nonlinear creep patterns of yellow sandstone; ③ analysis on the creep damage parameters showed that E₁ and η₂ increased linearly with creep stress, E₂ increased exponentially, and η₁ decreased negatively.