lumber

CEFRC1

/ˈlʌm.bə/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Wood prepared for building or making things.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move slowly and awkwardly.

Examples

  • Good lumber is hard to find these days.

  • The vessel was loaded with coal, lumber, and so on.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away.

  2. Useless or cumbrous material.

  3. Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.

More examples

In context

  • 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 commercia...

  • 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.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The huge bear began to blank through the thick forest, shaking the ground as it moved.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive from the same root as lame. Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England. Compare English lumpish.