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lumber

 - 7 dictionary results

lum⋅ber

1[luhm-ber]
–noun
1. timber sawed or split into planks, boards, etc.
2. miscellaneous useless articles that are stored away.
–verb (used without object)
3. to cut timber and prepare it for market.
4. to become useless or to be stored away as useless.
–verb (used with object)
5. to convert (a specified amount, area, etc.) into lumber: We lumbered more than a million acres last year.
6. to heap together in disorder.
7. to fill up or obstruct with miscellaneous useless articles; encumber.

Origin:
1545–55; orig. n. use of lumber 2 ; i.e., useless goods that weigh one down, impede one's movements


lum⋅ber⋅er, noun
lum⋅ber⋅less, adjective

lum⋅ber

2[luhm-ber]
–verb (used without object)
1. to move clumsily or heavily, esp. from great or ponderous bulk: overloaded wagons lumbering down the dirt road.
2. to make a rumbling noise.

Origin:
1300–50; ME lomeren; cf. dial. Sw lomra to resound, loma to walk heavily


lum⋅ber⋅ly, adjective


1. trudge, barge, plod.

Lumber River

–noun
a river in S central North Carolina and NE South Carolina, flowing SE and S to the Little Pee Dee River. 125 mi. (201 km) long.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To lumber
lum·ber 1   (lŭm'bər)   
n.  
  1. Timber sawed into boards, planks, or other structural members of standard or specified length.

  2. Something useless or cumbersome.

  3. Chiefly British Miscellaneous stored articles.

v.   lum·bered, lum·ber·ing, lum·bers

v.   tr.
    1. To cut down (trees) and prepare as marketable timber.

    2. To cut down the timber of.

  1. Chiefly British To clutter with or as if with unused articles.

v.   intr.
To cut and prepare timber for marketing.

[Perhaps from lumber2.]
lum'ber adj., lum'ber·er n.
lum·ber 2   (lŭm'bər)   
intr.v.   lum·bered, lum·ber·ing, lum·bers
  1. To walk or move with heavy clumsiness. See Synonyms at blunder.

  2. To move with a rumbling noise.


[Middle English lomeren, possibly of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish dialectal loma, to move heavily.]
lum'ber·ing·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

lumber  (n.)
"timber sawn into rough planks," 1662, Amer.Eng. (Massachusetts), earlier "disused bit of furniture; heavy, useless objects" (1552), probably from lumber (v.), perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian immigrants famous as pawnbrokers and money-lenders in England (see Lombard). The evolution of sense would be because a lumber-house ("pawn shop") naturally accumulates odds and ends of furniture. Lumberjack first attested 1831, Canadian Eng.

lumber  (v.)
"to move clumsily," c.1300, lomere, probably from a Scand. source (cf. dial. Swed. loma "move slowly," O.N. lami "lame"), ultimately cognate with lame (adj.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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