lumber

noun

1. 1

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

   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 […].

   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 commercial importance.;

2. 2

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

   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.

   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.

3. 3

   figurativeUseless or cumbrous material.

   The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head,[…]

4. 4

   obsoleteA pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn.

   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.

5. 5

   slangA baseball bat.

6. 6

   slangAn erect penis.

verb

1. 1

   To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.

   ...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.

   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.

   2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey. Through eerie reach of ancient woods / Where lumbering mists arise / I journey for nines moons of the year / To where a land of legend lies

2. 2

   To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on.

   They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases.

   I got lumbered with that boring woman all afternoon.

   The mean utensils, pewter measures, empty cans and casks, with which this room was lumbered, proclaimed it that of the host, who slept, surrounded by his professional implements of hospitality and stock in trade.

3. 3

   To heap together in disorder.

   so much stuff lumberd together

4. 4

   To fill or encumber with lumber.

   to lumber up a room

5. 5

   obsoleteTo pawn (goods).

Forms

plural

lumbers

past tense

lumbered

past participle

lumbered

present participle

lumbering

third person singular

lumbers