• (British) IPA: /ˈkʌmbə/

cumber (cumbers, present participle cumbering; past and past participle cumbered)

1. (transitive, dated) To slow down; to hinder; to burden.
   • 1717, John Dryden, Metamorphoses

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

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, OCLC 6963663 ↗:

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

   • 1825 June 21, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of the Crusaders. [...] In Four Volumes, volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: Printed [by James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 5584494 ↗, page 71 ↗:

     Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.

   • 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.

• encumber

• encumber
• encumbrance

• French: encombrer