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definitions

cumber

[kuhm-ber]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cumber ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to hinder; hamper.
to overload; burden.
to inconvenience; trouble.

noun

a hindrance.
something that cumbers.
Archaic. embarrassment; trouble.

Origin of cumber

1250–1300; Middle English cumbre (noun), cumbren (v.), aphetic variant of acumbren to harass, defeat; see encumber
Related formscum·ber·er, nouncum·ber·ment, nouno·ver·cum·ber, verb (used with object)un·cum·bered, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for cumber

hinder, obstruct, inhibit, load, saddle, tax, overload, delay, encumber, impede, burden, trouble, oppress

Examples from the Web for cumber

Historical Examples of cumber

  • Why should I cumber myself with regrets that the receiver is not capacious?

    Essays, First Series

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Two men abreast could not beset him, since one must cumber the movements of the other.

    St. Martin's Summer

    Rafael Sabatini

  • God had at any rate decreed that this man should not cumber it as a drone.

    The Romany Rye

    George Borrow

  • You don't imagine of what service Lord Cumber and I could be of to you.

  • God had, at any rate, decreed that this man should not cumber it as a drone.

    The Romany Rye

    George Borrow

British Dictionary definitions for cumber

cumber

verb (tr)

to obstruct or hinder
obsolete to inconvenience

noun

a hindrance or burden
Derived Formscumberer, noun

Word Origin for cumber

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper