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cumber

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cumber¹

  • /ˈkʌmbə/ UK

Rhymes with -ʌmbə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English combren, aphetic form of acombren or encombren, borrowed from Old French encombrer, ultimately either from Latin cumulus or Proto-Celtic *kombereti (“to bring together”), from *kom- + *bereti (“to bear”). Cognate with German kümmern (“to take care of”).

verb cumbers · cumbering · cumbered · cumbre

  1. dated, transitive 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?

    Similar: encumber

cumber²

  • /ˈkʌmbə/ UK

Rhymes with -ʌmbə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English komber, kumbre, cumbre, combre (“distress; destruction”). Used in 14th century Middle English in the very scarcely attested “destruction” sense but not in common use until the 16th century; at first chiefly Scots, where it is also spelled cummer. Further etymology is uncertain, the term is either:

* an aphetic form of encomber, encumbir, encumbre (“trouble; misfortune; harm, ruin”), itself from Old French encombre (“a hindrance, difficulty”), see Etymology 1 and French encombrer for further etymology; or,

* cognate with Middle High German kumber (German Kummer), Middle Low German kummer, and Dutch kommer with which it strikingly shares the meaning “trouble, distress”, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *kumbr (“burden, trouble, sorrow”); or,

* a deverbal from cumber.

noun

  1. obsolete, uncountable Trouble, distress. Fleet foot on the correi, / Sage counsel in cumber, / Red hand in the foray, / How sound is thy slumber!
  2. uncountable Something that encumbers; a hindrance, a burden.

cumber³

  • /ˈkʌmbə/ UK

Rhymes with -ʌmbə(ɹ)

noun cumbers · 'cumber

  1. abbreviation, clipping, colloquial Clipping of cucumber

Translations

Every language

verb to slow down, to hinder, to burden

Françaisencombrer

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Cite this
MLA

"cumber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cumber. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

cumber. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cumber

Chicago

"cumber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cumber.

BibTeX
@misc{cumber_2026,
  title = {cumber},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cumber},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}