lumbering
Americannoun
adjective
-
awkward in movement
-
moving with a rumbling sound
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lumbering
Explanation
Someone who's lumbering moves in a heavy, ungainly way. The big, lumbering players on a football team tend to play defensive positions like lineman. You might normally skip lightly down the street, but when you're carrying two big suitcases and wearing a heavy backpack, you'll be a lumbering figure slowly making your way along the sidewalk. Your toy poodle might move easily, while your giant 150-pound Mastiff is a lumbering, drooling companion. This adjective comes from the verb lumber, from the earlier lomere, which has a Scandinavian root.
Vocabulary lists containing lumbering
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 pinniped pup looked around quizzically with large, black eyes before lumbering into the surf with abandon — as only the young can.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
It wasn’t until Tuesday, more than four weeks into the war, that Caine said it was safe enough to send lumbering B-52 bombers over Iranian territory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
Costing A$136,000, the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture's designers inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was "massive, lumbering and fascinating".
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
Part of Melissa's punch stems from its slow pace: it is lumbering along slower than most people walk, at just three miles per hour or less.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2025
The gnomes weren’t helping either, lumbering along with their big swinging behinds blocking two lanes.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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.
