different between curber vs cumber

English

Etymology

From curb +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??b?/

Noun

curber (plural curbers)

1. Someone or something which curbs.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 282:

     they required him as a safeguard against the demon and a curber of other people's crimes.

2. (historical slang) A type of thief who used a ‘curb’ or hooked pole to steal things through open windows.
   • 1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, Folio Society 2006, p. 33:

     Night was the natural time for the curber’s activities and striking up an acquaitance with a serving maid was an invaluable way of getting a window left open or learning the exact layout of the rooms in the house.

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