The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cumber \Cum"ber\ (k?m"b?r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cumbered (-b?rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cumbering.] [OE. combren, cumbren,OF. combrer to hinder, from LL. cumbrus a heap, fr. L. cumulus; cf. Skr. ?? to increase, grow strong. Cf. Cumulate.] To rest upon as a troublesome or useless weight or load; to be burdensome or oppressive to; to hinder or embarrass in attaining an object, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble.
Why asks he what avails him not in fight,
And would but cumber and retard his flight?
--Dryden.
Martha was cumbered about much serving.
--Luke x. 40.
Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? -- Luke xiii. 7.
The multiplying variety of arguments, especially
frivolous ones, . . . but cumbers the memory.
--Locke.
Wiktionary
(context now rare English) hampered; encumbered. v
(en-past of: cumber)
Usage examples of "cumbered".
It was almost completely dark in the narrow, cramped, low-pitched room, cumbered up with an enormous wardrobe and piles of cardboard boxes and all sorts of frippery and litter.
It must have been a great difficulty to the biographer to find his pathway cumbered by the volumes of 1883, set by his father as a plausible man-trap for future intruders.