cumbrous
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cumbrous
First recorded in 1325–75, cumbrous is from the Middle English word cumberous. See cumber, -ous
Explanation
Anything cumbrous is large and unwieldy. You might successfully build a huge, bulky desk from lumber you find in the garage, but how are you going to fit the cumbrous thing through your bedroom door? It's a good idea to take off your cumbrous hockey uniform — pads, helmet, skates — before you get in the car after practice. This adjective has a more commonly-used synonym, cumbersome, but you may find cumbrous to be slightly less long and clumsy. In other words, it's a bit less cumbrous! Both words come from the old-fashioned verb cumber, "to trouble or hinder."
Vocabulary lists containing cumbrous
List 8
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"Paradise Lost" by John Milton, Book III
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List 8
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Road Home Program, a state program supposed to help rebuild, was cumbrous and slow, and grants often didn’t cover the cost of repairs.
From Washington Times • Sep. 1, 2017
This cumbrous and costly apparatus kept the field to itself for some time.”
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2014
Set in a luxuriant landscape — 11,000 acres of swaying sugar cane, and terrain resembling an upside-down egg carton — is cumbrous industrial equipment for producing spirits.
From New York Times • Feb. 21, 2014
John Gielgud, playing Othello at Stratford in 1961, was less happy, complaining that Hall's costumes were "beautiful but cumbrous" and that the elaborate production stalled while Zeffirelli leafed through "his damned press cuttings".
From The Guardian • Jun. 24, 2010
“Mordred,” be asked with a cumbrous accent “Mordred, wha’ have ye left Sir Gareth?”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
