Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put a heavy load on; burden: a hiker who was encumbered with a heavy pack; a life that has always been encumbered with responsibilities.
- v. To hinder or impede the action or performance of: restrictions that encumber police work.
- v. To burden with legal or financial obligations: an estate that is encumbered with debts.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An encumbrance; a hindrance.
- To clog or impede with a load, burden, or other hindrance; render difficult or laborious in motion or operation; embarrass; overload; perplex; obstruct.
- Specifically To place (property) under a charge or servitude; load with debt or liability: as, to encumber an estate with mortgages, or with a widow's dower; an encumbered title. See encumbrance, 3. Synonyms To oppress, overload, hinder, entangle, handicap, weigh down.
Wiktionary
- v. to load down something with a burden
- v. to restrict or block something with a hindrance or impediment
- v. to add a legal claim or other obligation
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To impede the motion or action of, as with a burden; to retard with something superfluous; to weigh down; to obstruct or embarrass
- v. To load with debts, or other legal claims.
WordNet 3.0
- v. hold back
Etymologies
- Middle English encombren, from Old French encombrer, to block up : en-, in; see en-1 + combre, hindrance (from Gaulish *comboros).
Examples
“Spending cuts will further encumber the Navy's already withering fleet, which plays a central role in AirSea Battle.”
The Wall Street Journal: Asia Needs a Larger U.S. Defense Budget
“A credit-rating downgrade could encumber the city's ability to borrow, potentially making loans more expensive.”
“Most of these rules apply only to licensed broadcast TV and radio operators, but they could come to encumber new media platforms and technology providers unless scrapped for good.”
“As many survivors of divorce will attest, something good will come from the ashes of your marriage if you do not encumber your future with hate, revenge and useless conflict.”
The Huffington Post: Alison Patton: The Silver Lining of Divorce
“The advantage is no time and effort searching and preparing for the other alternatives, and you don't have to encumber yourself or give up control of your company.”
The Huffington Post: Marty Zwilling: Most Startups Get No Professional Investor Cash
“Steering clear of any trap to pin oneself down into boxes of identity which so often encumber films about marginalized communities Rees gracefully negotiates the line between heartbreak and hope to foreground the freedom found when we recognize ourselves for who we are, for who we love, and for who stands with us.”
The Huffington Post: Roya Rastegar: Sundance 2011 and the Sound of My Generation: Part II
“Sure, some websites capability kiss the feet your encumber, re-using it and putting ads on it – making bread from your tyrannically in the planning stages unemployed.”
The Culture of Sharing: Why Releasing Copyright Will Be the Smartest Thing You Do | Write to Done
“Cash is king and banks are good partners who will back a good business with debt financing without a lot of red tape to encumber the small agile businesses.”
“Not being a property lawyer, but can a deed written decades before encumber property that was later added to become part of that tract of park land?”
Saltzman looking for easy way out on Paulson stadiums? (Jack Bog's Blog)
“Thank you for your interest in my favour, but let me beg that you would not under the idea of serving me engage to cleare my shelf of Books and thereby encumber yourself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘encumber’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Loxodont's list
circumambulate, atelectasis, paramount, therefore, apotropaic, facture, identity, dome, lecture, cannibal, catatonia, rite and 119 more...
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elij's Words
diegesis, intrinsic, semantic, salience, nonchalant, infosthetics, ambiguous, altruism, cynical, abstruse, vatic, encomium and 137 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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Derideo's Words
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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Underworld
Don DeLillo
roily, reverie, slidy, bandido, mohair, brilliantine, stupe, juke step, jowly, juke, wicket, quidbit and 391 more...
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ash
ash
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject and 4874 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary Workbook
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, E
excoriate, exoskeleton, enclave, endemic, erstwhile, entwine, elliptical, élan, earflaps, earlobe, earthen, earthenware and 237 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2707 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2536 more...
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words that shall remain on this list until I ha...
abate, captious, encumber, sundry, slovenly, sagacious, perspicacious, scruple, fallacious, inveigh, contrition, sublime and 65 more...
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new words for a wench
new words i want to keep
warrant, predicate, disparage, deride, requite, edifying, cut it fine, pervasive, thwart, concur, appertain, comprise and 78 more...
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set 12
libelous, ellipsis, propriety, verdant, doff, veracity, clavicle, collusion, argot, scoff, retentive, futile and 70 more...


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