encumber
verb
Did you know?
Encumber Has French Roots
“I can’t help you with your troubles / If you won’t help with mine,” the workingman protagonist tells his companion Melinda in “Cumberland Blues” (a song by Grateful Dead), encumbered by indecision over whether or not to keep his dead-end job. Does he stay or does he go? To be encumbered is to be held back, weighed down, overburdened. One can be encumbered physically (as by a heavy load or severe weather) or figuratively (as by, well, the blues). Encumber traces back to the Middle French noun combre, which referred to a dam or weir constructed in the bed of a river to hold back fish or protect the banks. The notion of stoppage or blockage embedded in combre led to the verb encombre (“to obstruct, burden”) and further downstream to not only the English verb encumber, but adjectives cumbersome and cumbrous, both used to describe things that can slow one down. (Note, however, that the place name Cumberland—referring originally to a former county of northwestern England and used in many U.S. and Canadian locales—comes not from combre, but rather the Latin designation Cumbria, in turn was influenced by the Welsh Cymry.)
Examples of encumber in a Sentence
Robert Ross, Robb Report, 26 Sep. 2025
Some 60% of the world’s GDP is encumbered by debt to GDP of 100% or more, and untypically large deficits in the context of a business cycle expansion phase.
—Mike O'Sullivan, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The block is encumbered with three ground leases.
—Matthew Geiger, Denver Post, 19 Sep. 2025
The land is thus financially encumbered and won’t be availble to be leased or sold until 2031 or after.
—Eric Adler
august 23, Kansas City Star, 23 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for encumber
Cite this Entry
“Encumber.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encumber. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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encumber
verb
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