cumbrous

English

Etymology

cumber + -ous

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkʌmbɹəs/

Adjective

cumbrous (comparative more cumbrous, superlative most cumbrous)

  1. Unwieldy because of its weight; cumbersome.
    • Jonathan Swift
      He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight.
    • De Quincey
      that cumbrous and unwieldy style which disfigures English composition so extensively
    • 1946, Bertrand Russell, chapter 1, in History of Western Philosophy:
      In the course of thousands of years, this cumbrous system developed into alphabetic writing.
  2. (obsolete) Giving trouble; vexatious.
    • Edmund Spenser
      a cloud of cumbrous gnats
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