Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Timber sawed into boards, planks, or other structural members of standard or specified length.
- n. Something useless or cumbersome.
- n. Chiefly British Miscellaneous stored articles.
- v. To cut down (trees) and prepare as marketable timber.
- v. To cut down the timber of.
- v. Chiefly British To clutter with or as if with unused articles.
- v. To cut and prepare timber for marketing.
- v. To walk or move with heavy clumsiness. See Synonyms at blunder.
- v. To move with a rumbling noise.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make a heavy rumbling noise; rumble: chiefly in the present participle.
- To move heavily or cumbrously: chiefly in the present participle.
- To stumble. Also lumper.
- n. Things, more or less bulky and cumbersome, thrown aside (or which may be thrown aside) as of no present use or value. Lumber usually includes old or broken boards, barrels, boxes, and other articles of possible future use, as distinguished from mere useless rubbish or refuse. Often used figuratively.
- n. Timber sawed or split for use, as beams, joists, boards, planks, staves, hoops, and the like.
- n. Useless and cumbersome weight, bulk, etc.
- n. Foolish or ribald talk.
- n. Harm; mischief.
- To heap together in disorder.
- To fill with lumber; encumber with anything useless: as, to lumber a room: often with up.
- To cut timber in the forest and prepare it for market.
- n. A pawnbroker's shop.
- n. A pledge; a pawn.
- To put in pawn; hence, to put in prison.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Wood intended as a building material.
- n. Useless things that are stored away
- v. intransitive to move clumsily
- v. transitive to load down with things, to fill, to encumber
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn.
- n. Old or refuse household stuff; things cumbrous, or bulky and useless, or of small value.
- n. U.S. Timber sawed or split into the form of beams, joists, boards, planks, staves, hoops, etc.; esp., that which is smaller than heavy timber.
- v. To heap together in disorder.
- v. To fill or encumber with lumber.
- v. To move heavily, as if burdened.
- v. To make a sound as if moving heavily or clumsily; to rumble.
- v. U.S. To cut logs in the forest, or prepare timber for market.
WordNet 3.0
- v. cut lumber, as in woods and forests
- n. an implement used in baseball by the batter
- n. the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
- v. move heavily or clumsily
Etymologies
- Unknown origin. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps from lumber2.Middle English lomeren, possibly of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish dialectal loma, to move heavily. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In times of common calamity God manifests his favour to the elect remnant; his jewels, which he will then make up; his peculiar treasure, which he will secure when the lumber is abandoned to the spoiler.”
“A new matrix enters the equation with the heavy increase in lumber prices, as today reported in the NY Times.”
Housing Bubble, Again, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“He had given it out, rather vaguely, that he needed the animals for sledding lumber from the mill to his sluices, and right here is where Sitka Charley demonstrated his fitness.”
“Ain't I got two teams haulin 'lumber for the new winery? An”
“Backyard describes lumber from the tree scientifically named Cunninghamia lanceolata as cedar.”
“Since the alleged falsity here was “referring to lumber from a tree that is not classified as cedar in a scientific or botanical classification” as cedar, Rainbow had engaged in materially related inequitable conduct.”
“Alas, lumber is not an easily-renewable resource and once it's gone, it's gone for a long time, unless there is unlikely foresight to replant the ravaged slopes of this tropical forest.”
Mexico's endless Pacific beach: sun, surf, sand, seafood and solitude
“An 'I take the whole outfit an' start Wednesday of next week haulin 'lumber for the buildin's, an' bricks for the kilns, an 'all the rest. An' when they're ready for the clay I 'm the boy that'll give it to them.”
“At the way lumber is now," he said, "four thousand could do it.”
“With accessibility in mind, the lumber is organized on the exterior of the building in rectangular cubby holes, creating a wonderful mosaic-like texture that proves that functionality and aesthetics can go hand-in-hand.”
Beautiful Solar Storage Barn Built From Raw Materials | Inhabitat
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lumber’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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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 4087 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.co...creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
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Wordnik Spam Inquiries
We get a lot of spam emails at Wordnik that fit this pattern: "Mr Bob Wilson here and i will like to know if you do have X for sale". The words on this list represent a subset of such requested items.
burnisher, shaper vise, salt spreader, soil pulveriser, bible, flutes, baffles, crucifix cross, proofer, gazebo, real bubble wrap, roller tray and 206 more...
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Construction Zone
Help me build a list of things you'd find in a construction zone or at a construction site.
rebar, lumber, cement, plywood, hard hat, hammer, nails, nail gun, insulation, electrical wiring, wood, crane and 62 more...
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I am : moving
Words to describe gait and movement.
walk, run, trot, jog, canter, gallop, skip, crawl, slink, slither, amble, trundle and 69 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
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Resounding Words
great timbre
sone, sonata, resound, sonorous, consonant, unison, sonic, swan, sonant, sonnet, dissonance, scraunch and 142 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
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Favorite Verbs and Verb Forms
Culling my main Favorites list, and noticing how few of my favorite words are verbs. I'll have to work on that...
stupefy, eschew, gurgle, affianced, imbue, disconcerting, schlep, begrimed, wizened, woolgathering, lounge, flank and 94 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lumber.

fbharjo a heavy walker Jan 9, 2009
chained_bear How I roll. Aug 1, 2008