lumber definition

English

Etymology

Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move". Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lŭmʹbə IPA^(key): /ˈlʌm.bə/
• (General American) enPR: lŭmʹbər IPA^(key): /ˈlʌm.bɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ)

Noun

lumber (usually uncountable, plural lumbers)

1. (now rare) Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away. [from 16th c.]
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 88, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume III, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:

     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.

   • 1783, William Cowper, letter, 10 November:

     We made all haste down stairs, and soon threw open the street door, for the reception of as much lumber, of all sorts, as our house would hold, brought into it by several who thought it necessary to move their furniture.

2. (figuratively) Useless or cumbrous material. [from 17th c.]
   • 1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711, OCLC 15810849:

     The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head, […]

3. (obsolete) A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. [17th–18th c.]
   • 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.

4. (Canada, US) Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material. [from 17th c.]
   • 1782, H. de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer:

     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 […] .

   • 4 December 1883, Chester A. Arthur, Third State of the Union Address

     The resources of Alaska, especially in fur, mines, and lumber, are considerable in extent and capable of large development, while its geographical situation is one of political and commercial importance.;

5. (baseball, slang) A baseball bat.
6. (vulgar, slang) An erect penis.

Synonyms

• timber
• wood

Translations

Verb

lumber (third-person singular simple present lumbers, present participle lumbering, simple past and past participle lumbered)

1. (intransitive) To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary

     ...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.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 221:

     The trooper climbed back on the rock and slid down to take the cadaver lowered to him by Bradly, who lumbered down to assist in carrying it.

   • 2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey.

     Through eerie reach of ancient woods / Where lumbering mists arise / I journey for nines moons of the year / To where a land of legend lies

2. (transitive, with with) To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on

   They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases.

   I got lumbered with that boring woman all afternoon.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685, page 278:

     The mean utensils, pewter measures, empty cans and casks, with which this room was lumbered, proclaimed it that of the host, who slept, surrounded by his professional implements of hospitality and stock in trade.

3. To heap together in disorder.
   • 1677, Thomas Rymer, The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd

     so much stuff lumberd together

4. To fill or encumber with lumber.

   to lumber up a room

Related terms

• lumbering
• lumberingness

Translations

Anagrams

• Blumer, Bulmer, Rumble, rumble, umbrel