lumber
Plural: lumbers
Noun
- the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
- an implement used in baseball by the batter
- Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
- Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away.
- Useless or cumbrous material.
- A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn.
- A baseball bat.
- An erect penis.
Verb
Verb Forms: lumbered, lumbering, lumbers
- To cut down timber; to move clumsily or slowly.
- move heavily or clumsily
- "The heavy man lumbered across the room"
- cut lumber, as in woods and forests
- To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.
- To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on.
- To heap together in disorder.
- To fill or encumber with lumber.
- To pawn (goods).
Examples
- He tried to lumber his way to victory, but his opponent was too nimble.
- I got lumbered with that boring woman all afternoon.
- They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases.
- to lumber up a room
Origin / Etymology
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.
Scrabble Score: 10
lumber: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordlumber: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
lumber: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary