lumbered

verb

past tense of lumber
1
as in shuffled
to move heavily or clumsily the elephant lumbered through the jungle

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stumbled
to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually the novel's plot lumbers to its predictable conclusion after 500 long pages

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in rumbled
to make a low heavy rolling sound the horse-drawn wagon lumbered along the trail

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4
as in loaded
to place a weight or burden on preparations that will lumber the expedition with unnecessary equipment and supplies

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of lumbered When the other train finally emerged through the inferno and lumbered past them, the camera man couldn’t help but exclaim. — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 15 July 2026 Quietly reading my book without another soul around, a family of four lumbered up with their wagon filled with chairs, toys, an umbrella, and a cooler. — Susan B. Barnes, Southern Living, 14 July 2026 Just before Megna spoke in the hallway outside the Eagles locker room, Gagne lumbered by on crutches. — Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 11 June 2026 Many experts had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. — CNN Money, 18 Feb. 2026 Many experts had thought sharks didn't exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. — CBS News, 18 Feb. 2026 Many experts had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. — ABC News, 17 Feb. 2026 Robinson said he was also cut off from food stamps in November as the longest government shutdown in history lumbered on. — Rebecca Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 27 Jan. 2026 The raccoon took the hint, shimmied down the rope and lumbered onto a ladder before making a less-than-graceful landing on the porch below. — Ronnie Li, USA Today, 16 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lumbered
  1. shuffled
  2. stumbled
  3. rumbled
  4. loaded
  5. stomped
  6. struggled
  7. growled
  8. saddled
Verb
  • Bulldozers shuffled right through the rubble to make roads that cut Gaza into separate sections.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 July 2026
  • And before several services shuffled their rankings earlier this week, no QB ranked inside the top 20.
    — Grace Raynor, New York Times, 16 July 2026
Definition of shuffled
Verb
  • But if the numbers hold up, Orange County may have stumbled onto something much bigger than baseball.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2026
  • After departing Ecuador en route to El Segundo, members of the crew stumbled upon an unexpected find inside the ship’s garbage — trash bags filled with cocaine, 430 pounds of it.
    — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026
Definition of stumbled
Verb
  • New York City horse racing rumbled to the finish line Sunday, as Aqueduct Racetrack — in all its paint-peeling, dilapidated glory — staged the venue’s last live races, transporting aging fans to a bygone era.
    — Lili Kobielski, NBC news, 29 June 2026
  • The building rumbled before the two finalists even got physical.
    — Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 27 June 2026
Definition of rumbled
Verb
  • The Brewers loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth against Calvin Faucher (4-5), who came in to open the inning.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 19 July 2026
  • That came an inning after Manny Machado walked to the plate with one out and the bases loaded and grounded into a double play.
    — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 July 2026
Definition of loaded
Verb
  • Cece got out of bed, put on a pair of fuzzy pink slippers, and stomped to her mother’s office.
    — Jessica Contrera, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
  • On Monday night, a 39-year-old man wearing a Spurs jersey was stomped and punched after Game 3 while walking down West 47th Street, about 15 blocks from the arena.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 14 June 2026
Definition of stomped
Verb
  • The 17 passengers and crew who lived told investigators everyone survived the landing, but many passengers struggled to locate life vests and the crew had a difficult time pulling out life rafts.
    — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 22 July 2026
  • Brayden Burries, Bucks While most of the vaunted crop of rookie guards from the NCAA ranks struggled, Burries was a glaring exception.
    — John Hollinger, New York Times, 22 July 2026
Definition of struggled
Verb
  • Jack White, who growled and grinded as the singer/guitarist of the White Stripes and has since positioned himself as a primal rock god on his own, is showing a new side as a sculptor with a show opening in a London gallery run by none other than Damien Hirst.
    — Andy Battaglia, ARTnews.com, 22 May 2026
  • Mira growled into her watch, excitedly.
    — Anna Wiener, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
Definition of growled
Verb
  • This created not just a current budget drain but also saddled us with long-term pension costs.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 June 2026
  • The most obvious comp is that Disney couldn’t buy Fox’s TV networks because doing so would’ve saddled Disney with two broadcast networks, ABC and Fox, and that’s a big regulatory no-no.
    — Brian Welk, IndieWire, 18 June 2026
Definition of saddled

Browse Nearby Words

lumber
lumbered
lumberer
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Cite this Entry

“Lumbered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lumbered. Accessed 24 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of lumbered for Spanish Speakers

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