Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To weigh down; burden: was cumbered with many duties.
- v. To hamper or hinder, as by being in the way: was cumbered with a long poncho.
- v. To litter; clutter up: Weeds cumbered the garden paths.
- v. Archaic To bother; distress.
- n. A hindrance; an encumbrance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To burden or obstruct with or as with a load or weight, or any impediment; load excessively or uselessly; press upon; choke up; clog.
- To be a clog to; hinder by obstruction; hamper in movement.
- To trouble; perplex; embarrass; distract.
- n. That which cumbers; a burden; a hindrance; an obstruction.
- n. Embarrassment; disturbance; distress; trouble.
Wiktionary
- v. To slow down, to hinder, to burden.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To rest upon as a troublesome or useless weight or load; to be burdensome or oppressive to; to hinder or embarrass in attaining an object, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble.
- n. Trouble; embarrassment; distress.
WordNet 3.0
- v. hold back
Etymologies
- Middle English combren, to annoy, from Old French combrer, from combre, hindrance, from Vulgar Latin *comboros, of Celtic origin.
Examples
“The word cumber here means to render barren or sterile.”
“Such trifles at best come under the head of what old Warner would have called cumber-minds.”
“He made this plea, not with an armoury of Greek learning, such as cumber Virgil and Horace, but with an original passion.”
The Elegies of Tibullus Being the Consolations of a Roman Lover Done in English Verse
“Whereupon the hawker took a "cumber" from his barrow, bit off the end, and chewed it till the sap squirted.”
“Why should they cumber their strength with his weakness?”
“It wasn't a hunting theme but the groom and groomsmen did were camo cumber buns.”
“When a man is free much may go unquestioned, which, should he be rash enough to cumber himself with domestic ties, society will instantly challenge.”
“And, while it is not nice that these men should die, it is ordained that they must die, and we should not quarrel with them if they cumber our highways and kitchen stoops with their perambulating carcasses.”
“In this painting, t looks like the vest or cumber band they wore as a bodice outside the peasant blouse, was of tapestry or a colorful print.”
The Colorful Garments Painted by Eugene de Blaas (1815-1894)
“I carry a 4 gallon plactic milk carton on the back rack to hold my other junk and teh cumber long fis inside just right.”
madmouth how it minces! there should be a "Mincing words" list Sep 15, 2009
bilby
I love to steal awhile away
From every cumbering care,
And spend the hours of setting day
In humble, grateful prayer.
- Phebe (Hinsdale) Brown, 'Private Devotion'. Sep 15, 2009