different between cumbersome vs cumber

English

Etymology

cumber (“hindrance”) +? -some.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?mb?s?m/

Adjective

cumbersome (comparative more cumbersome, superlative most cumbersome)

1. Burdensome or hindering, as a weight or drag; vexatious
2. Not easily managed or handled; awkward; clumsy.

   Cumbersome machines can endanger operators and slow down production.

3. Hard, difficult, demanding to handle or get around with.

   A slaves' work was as cumbersome as toiling on the fields, or in the mines.

4. Inert, lumbering, slow in movement

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:difficult

Derived terms

• cumbersomely
• cumbersomeness

Synonyms

• cumbrous
• unwieldy

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• cumbre (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English combren, borrowed from the second element of Old French encombrer.Cognate with German kümmern (“to take care of”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?mb?/
• Rhymes: -?mb?(?)

Verb

cumber (third-person singular simple present cumbers, present participle cumbering, simple past and past participle cumbered)

1. (transitive, dated) To slow down; to hinder; to burden; to encumber.

   • Why asks he what avails him not in fight, / And would but cumber and retard his flight?

   • The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous ones, […] but cumbers the memory.

   • 1886, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel. Pub.: Adams & Charles Black, Edinburgh; page 321:

     […] the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.

Synonyms

• encumber

Derived terms

• cumberground
• cumbersome
• cumberworld
• cumbrous

Related terms

• encumber
• encumbrance

Translations

See also

• Thesaurus:hinder

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “cumber”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• cumbre, recumb