Lumber Meaning
/ˈlʌm.bə/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounWood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
nounOld furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away.
Sentence Examples
Good lumber is hard to find these days.
The vessel was loaded with coal, lumber, and so on.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The huge bear began to ____ through the thick forest, shaking the ground as it moved.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The truck was carrying a large load of ____ to the construction site for the new community center.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Here they live by fishing on the most plentiful coasts in the world; there they fell trees, by the sides of large rivers, for masts and lumber […]."
— 1782, H. de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer:
"On the ſecond day of my impriſonment, I was viſited by the duke of L——, a friend of my lord, who found me ſitting upon a trunk, in a poor little dining-room filled with lumber, and lighted with two bits of tallow-candle, which had been left over night."
— 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “The memoirs of a lady of quality”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume III, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 170:
"The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head,[…]"
— 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
"...he was only apprized of the arrival of the Monkbarns division by the gee-hupping of the postilion, as the post-chaise lumbered up behind him."
— 1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:
"The trooper climbed back on the rock and slid down to take the cadaver lowered to him by Bradly, who lumbered down to assist in carrying it."
— 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 221:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The huge bear began to ____ through the thick forest, shaking the ground as it moved.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The truck was carrying a large load of ____ to the construction site for the new community center.