cumber
[kuhm-ber]
- to hinder; hamper.
- to overload; burden.
- to inconvenience; trouble.
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- a hindrance.
- something that cumbers.
- Archaic. embarrassment; trouble.
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Origin of cumber
1250–1300; Middle English cumbre (noun), cumbren (v.), aphetic variant of acumbren to harass, defeat; see encumber
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
hinder, obstruct, inhibit, load, saddle, tax, overload, delay, encumber, impede, burden, trouble, oppressExamples from the Web for cumber
Historical Examples
Why should I cumber myself with regrets that the receiver is not capacious?
Essays, First SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
Two men abreast could not beset him, since one must cumber the movements of the other.
St. Martin's SummerRafael Sabatini
God had at any rate decreed that this man should not cumber it as a drone.
The Romany RyeGeorge Borrow
You don't imagine of what service Lord Cumber and I could be of to you.
Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish AgentWilliam Carleton
God had, at any rate, decreed that this man should not cumber it as a drone.
The Romany RyeGeorge Borrow
cumber
- to obstruct or hinder
- obsolete to inconvenience
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- a hindrance or burden
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Word Origin
C13: probably from Old French combrer to impede, prevent, from combre barrier; see encumber
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cumber
v.
c.1300, "to overthrow, destroy; to be overwhelmed; to harass," apparently from French, but Old French combrer "to seize hold of, lay hands on, grab, snatch, take by force, rape," has not quite the same sense. Perhaps a shortened formation from a verb akin to Middle English acombren "obstructing progress," from Old French encombrer, from combre "obstruction, barrier," from Vulgar Latin *comboros "that which is carried together," perhaps from a Gaulish word.
The likely roots are PIE *kom (see com-) + *bher- (1) "to bear" (see infer). Weakened sense of "to hamper, to obstruct or weigh down" is late 14c. Related: Cumbered; cumbering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper