lumber
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
lumber
- /ˈlʌm.bə/ UK
- /ˈlʌm.bɚ/ US
- /ˈlʊm.bə/ Northern England
Sounds like lumbar (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ʌmbə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive from the same root as lame. Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England. Compare English lumpish.
noun lumbers
- Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material. Here they live by fishing on the most plentiful coasts in the world; there they fell trees, by the sides of large rivers, for masts and lumber […].
- Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away. On the ſecond day of my impriſonment, I was viſited by the duke of L——, a friend of my lord, who found me ſitting upon a trunk, in a poor little dining-room filled with lumber, and lighted with two bits of tallow-candle, which had been left over night.
- Useless or cumbrous material. The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head,[…]
- A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. a. 1746, Lady Grisell Baillie Murray, Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George Baillie They put all the little plate they had […] in the lumber, which is pawning it, till the ships came.
- A baseball bat.
- An erect penis.
verb lumbers · lumbering · lumbered
- To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly. ...he was only apprized of the arrival of the Monkbarns division by the gee-hupping of the postilion, as the post-chaise lumbered up behind him.
- To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on. They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases.
- To heap together in disorder. so much stuff lumberd together
- To fill or encumber with lumber. to lumber up a room
- To pawn (goods).
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: pound, timber, log, baseball bat, bat, furniture, backrest, prop, woodworking, woodwork, sawing, sawmill, stumpage, wooden, hood, fuelwood
Translations
Every language
noun wood as building material
| Español | madera aserrada, maderos aserrados |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 제목 jemok, 각목 gangmok |
| 日本語 | 材木 zaimoku, 木材 mokuzai |
| 中文 | 木料 mùliào, 木材 mùcái |
| Português | madeira serrada |
| Français | bois de charpente |
| Deutsch | Bauholz |
| Italiano | legname |
| Ελληνικά | ξυλεία xyleía |
| Română | cherestea |
| Русский | пиломатериа́лы pilomateriály, древеси́на drevesína, лесоматериа́л lesomateriál, де́рево dérevo, деревоматериа́л derevomateriál |
| العربية | خَشَب ḵašab |
verb To move clumsily and heavily.
| Italiano | arrancare |
|---|
Talk about this word "lumber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lumber. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. lumber. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lumber "lumber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lumber.Cite this
@misc{lumber_2026,
title = {lumber},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lumber},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
