cumber

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“
(Luke 8:14) Worldly cumber is a devilish thing; it will hurry a man from his bed without prayer; to a sermon, and from it again, without prayer; it will choke prayer, it will choke the Word, it will choke convictions, it will choke the soul, and cause that awakening shall be to no saving purpose 2.)

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. transitive verb To weigh down; burden: was cumbered with many duties.
  2. transitive verb To hamper or hinder, as by being in the way: was cumbered with a long poncho.
  3. transitive verb To litter; clutter up: Weeds cumbered the garden paths.
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Examples (50)

  • "Old folks air mos'ly cumber-ers--mos'ly cumberers o' the yearth, ennyhow Her weeping had ceased; she was looking at him with dismayed surprise in her eyes, still lustrous with unshed tears. —  His "Day In Court" 1895
  • In summe, others armes either fall from thy shoulders, or cumber or streighten thee. —  Machiavelli, Volume I
  • The sorrows, the "cumber" of which Knox was "alleged" to bear the blame, did not end with his death. —  John Knox and the Reformation
  • Of other prefatory matter, once intended,--apologetic mostly,--the reader shall be spared the cumber: and a clear prospectus issued by the publisher of the new series of plates, as soon as they are in a state of forwardness The second volume of this edition will contain the most useful matter out of the third volume of the old one, closed by its topical index, abridged and corrected BRANTWOOD 3rd May_, 1879 CONTENTS CHAP I. The Quarry II. —  Stones of Venice [introductions]
  • 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
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

biocontrol ·  bunion ·  nasality ·  encumbering ·  contradictoriness ·  tunnage ·  froggy ·  clunker ·  doper ·  templet ·  priapism ·  dreamdust
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English combren, to annoy, from Old French combrer, from combre, hindrance, from Vulgar Latin *comboros, of Celtic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English cumbren, combren, from Old French combrer, hinder, obstruct, commonly in comp. encombrer, French encombrer = Provencal encombrar = Italian ingombrare, from Middle Latin incumbrare, hinder, obstruct, encumber, from Latin in- + Middle Latin *cumbrus, combrus, obstruction, etc., from Latin cumulus, a heap: see cumber, n., and cf. encumber, of which cumber, v., is in part an abbreviated form.
  2. This noun, though later than the verb in English, and derived from it, is in the other tongues the orig. of the verb. Formerly also written comber; Old French combre, an obstruction of stakes, etc., in a river to catch fish (but comp. encombrc = Provencal encombre = Italian ingombro, hindrance, embarrassment, distress, verbal noun (cf. décombres, rubbish), from encombrer, etc.: see encumber), same as Old French comble, a heap, top, summit (see cumble), = Portuguese combro, comoro, a heap of earth, = Provencal comol, heap; Middle Latin (from Old French, etc.) combra, cumbra, an obstruction in a river to catch fish, combri, plural of combrus, a heap of felled trees obstructing a road, comblus, a heap; hence (from Middle Latin *cumbrus, combrus) Middle High German kumber, rubbish, burden, oppression, trouble, need, G. Danish kummer, trouble, grief. German dial. rubbish, = Dutch kommer, trouble, grief, dung of a hare; all ult. from Latin cumulus, a heap: see cumulus. For the change of m to mb, cf. number, chamber, etc.; for the change of l to r, cf. chapter.
 

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/ˈkəmbər/
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