| 释义 |
▪ I. cumber, n.|ˈkʌmbə(r)|
Forms: 4 kumbre, 5 komber, cumbyre, 6 combre, 6–7 comber, Sc. cummer, (-ar, -yr), 6– cumber.
[Used early in 14th c. in sense 1; but not common till 16th, and then at first chiefly Scotch, where it is also spelt cummer. The date, form, and sense, are all consistent with its being either a derivative of cumber v., or a shortened form of encumber n. But sense 2 strikingly coincides with Ger. kummer, MHG. (from c 1200) kumber, MLG. kummer, Du. kommer.
OF. had only combre fem. in the sense ‘heap of felled trees, stones, or the like’ (Godef.), corresponding to med.L. combra ‘a mound or mole in a river for the sake of catching fish’ (Du Cange), and akin to Merovingian L. cumbrus, pl. cumbri, combri ‘barriers of felled trees’ (Du C.), whence med.L. incumbrāre, F. encombrer, to encumber. Cf. also Pg. combro ‘a heap of earth’. In the Meroving. L. cumbrus, Diez (s.v. Colmo saw a barbaric form, through *cumblus, of L. cumulus heap: so also Littré, Scheler, Brachet, s.v. Encombre. But the question of the actual origin of cumbrus, and its relation to the Ger. kummer and its family, is a difficult one, which has been much investigated and discussed: see Grimm, Kluge, Franck, Doornkaat-Koolmann.]
†1. The condition of being cumbered; overthrow, destruction, rout. Obs.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 12516 Alle þe folk wyþ oute numbre, All broȝt y hem to kumbre. a1400― Chron. (Rolls) 15474 (Petyt MS.) Elfrik for to bring to komber.
†2. Trouble, distress, embarrassment, inconvenience. Obs. or arch.
1500–20Dunbar Devorit with Dreme i, Sic hunger, sic cowartis, and sic cumber, Within this land was nevir hard nor sene. 1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 312 Solicitude or grit cummer. 1547Coverdale Old Faith iii. C j a, Vpon the woman he layed combre sorow and payne. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 5143 Thay depart frome cair and cummer, Frome trubyll, trauell, sturt, and stryfe. 1560in E. Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) I. 337 Not..wthout yor great combre and travayle. 1682N. O. Boileau's Lutrin iv. 280 What Gains Shall answer all this Cumber, all these pains? 1719D'Urfey Pills V. 147 Yet Ise possess more happiness, And he had more of Cumber. 1876Morris Sigurd ii. 129 Till a man from their seed be arisen to deal with the cumber and wrong.
†b. Sometimes attributed to the agent: The action of troubling or embarrassing. Obs.
1563Randolph in Robertson Hist. Scot. (1759) II. App. 15 That we may be void of their Comber. 1603Philotus cxxxii, God..Conserue me fra thy cummer. a1651Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) II. 523 Let these childer want the heads, which sall..make you quite of their cummer, (quia mortui non mordent). 1828Scott F.M. Perth xvi, So the Fair City is quit of him and his cumber.
3. That which cumbers, incommodes, or hinders, by its weight, unwieldiness, or obstructive nature; a hindrance, obstruction, encumbrance, burden (lit. and fig.) Often contrasted with a ‘help’.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. v. xii. 1128 Hys Fadrys Landis of Herytage Fell til hym..All swylk Cumbyre he forsuke, And til haly lyf hym tuke. 1594Carew Tasso (1881) 119 Their horse and Camels heauy burdened, Amidst the way a grieuous cumber meet. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Manteau, A cloke is but a comber in faire weather. a1639W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxvi. (1640) 61 Jacob behaved not himselfe so as to be a cumber and burden to the family, but was helpfull to it. 1644Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 61 The stools and other cumber are removed when the assembly rises. 1756J. Woolman Jrnl. iii. (1840) 31 To live more free from outward cumbers. 1892Cornh. Mag. Apr. 428 [He] led us outside, up over a cumber of limestone rocks.
†b. That which causes trouble or inconvenience; a trouble. Obs.
1589Nashe Anat. Absurd. 40 So delighted to heare themselues, that they are a cumber to the eares of all other. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1776) 411 What is reputed a curse and a cumber in some places is esteemed the ornament and blessing of another.
4. The action or quality of encumbering, or fact of being encumbered; hindrance, embarrassment, obstruction, encumbrance; cumbrousness.
a1618Raleigh (J.), The greatest ships..are of marvellous charge and fearful cumber. 1664Evelyn Sylva, Where some..[trees] were planted single in the Park without cumber, they spread above fourscore foot. 1786Phil. Trans. LXXVI. 24 We shall..get rid of 18/19ths of the..weight; and consequently of much cumber, unhandiness, and derangement. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. (1881) I. Pref. 6 Of other prefatory matter..the reader shall be spared the cumber.
†5. Occupation with business to an inconvenient or burdensome degree; pressure of business; (with pl.) affairs that occupy and trouble one. Obs. or arch.
[1653A. Wilson Jas. I, 278 Free and at ease from comber and noise of Business.] 1669Penn No Cross xiii. § 7 As if Cumber, not Retirement; and Gain, not Content, were the Duty and Comfort of a Christian. 1688Sandilands Salut. Endeared Love 29 Taken up with the choaking Cares and Cumbers of this present Life. 1849J. Sterling in Fraser's Mag. XXXIX. 178 A trader hoarding bullion in his trunk Will make small profit, though he 'scape from cumber.
▪ II. cumber, v.|ˈkʌmbə(r)|
Forms: 3– cumber; also 3–7 comber, 4–5 combur, comer, 4–6 combre, cumbre, Sc. cummer, 5 combir, cumbir, cumbyre, cummere, comyr, Sc. cummyr (pa. tense cumryt).
[Cumber vb. is known from c 1300. Its early derivatives cumberment, cumbrance, cumbrous (14th c. at least) all suppose for it a French derivation: cf. the parallel series under encumber, and its weakened form accumber, also OF. encombrer, -ment, encombrance, encombros, -eus.
Except in one doubtful instance, Godefroy cites OF. combrer only in the sense of covrer ‘to lay hold of, seize, take’, which does not account for the ME. uses of cumber. He has no examples of combrance, combrement, and only one (16th c.) example of combreux. Hence it would be more satisfactory to regard the English words as aphetic forms of the encumber, acumber types, but for their appearing earlier than these. The etymological history being unsettled, the order of the senses, and the precise meaning in many cases, is doubtful.]
†1. trans. To overwhelm, overthrow, rout, destroy. Obs.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 7465 Seuene maner synnes..Þe whych cumbren men on many folde. c1330― Chron. (Rolls) 12356 Arthur bar on hym wyþ his launce To combren hym, als of chaunce. ― Ibid. 15474 Cadwan seide he wolde passe Humber, Elfrik to struye & to comber. c1325E.E. Allit P. B. 901 Cayre tid of þis kythe er combred þou worthe. 1375Barbour Bruce vi. 429 [Douglas] cummerit thaim sua, That weill nane eschapit. a1400–50Alexander 1471 Alexander is at hand, and will vs all cumbre. 15..Lord of Learne 416 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 197 They..cutten all his ioynts in sunder, & burnte him eke vpon a hyll; I-wis thé did him curstlye cumber.
†b. pass. To be overwhelmed and held fast, as in a slough. Obs. (Cf. Chaucer C.T. Prol. 508 ‘acombred [v.r. encombred] in the myre’.)
a1300Cursor M. 26514 (Cott.) If þou comberd be in sin. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 170 Þei beoþ cumbred in care and cunnen not out-crepe. c1440York Myst. xxvi. 171 Þou arte combered in curstnesse. 1460in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 84 Þer was she combred yn a carefulle case.
†c. intr. (for refl.) in same sense. Obs.
a1400Chester Pl. i. 219, I comber, I canker, I kindle in care, I sinke in sorrow.
†2. To harass, distress, trouble. Obs. (exc. with mixture of sense 4: to incommode, bother).
a1300Cursor M. 8018 (Cott.) Es nathing þat mai him cumber. c1440York Myst. xxxiv. 211 Ther quenes vs comeres with þer clakke. 1535Coverdale 1 Kings xxi. 5 What is y⊇ matter, that thy sprete is so combred? 1611Bible Luke x. 40 Martha was cumbred about much seruing. 1666Collins in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 462 To cumber you with some later thoughts of my own. 1820Scott Abbot xv, I cumber you no longer with my presence. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. xxvii, I disgrace nobody and cumber nobody.
†b. To confound or trouble the mind or senses; to perplex, puzzle. Obs.
c1350Will. Palerne 4047 Þe king in þat carful þouȝt was cumbred ful long. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xvii. (Tollem. MS.), Yf þe þinge þat is sen meueþ to swyftely þe syȝte is combrid. 1535Coverdale Acts x. 17 Whyle Peter was combred in him selfe what maner of vision this shulde be. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle vi. 2871 To bring't about it my conceit doth cumber.
3. To hamper, embarrass, hinder, get or be in the way of (persons, their movements, etc.).
1375Barbour Bruce vi. 141 Bot his hors, that wes born doune, Cummerit thaim the vpgang to ta. c1470Henry Wallace i. 229 The press was thik, and cummerit thaim full fast. 1529Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 249 Every Frencheman combryd other. 1653Holcroft Procopius ii. 38 Their arming..combers their foot, then whom the Moors will be much the swifter. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 344 To comber, or incomber and entangle one. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 4 Body shall cumber Soul-flight no more.
4. To occupy obstructively, or inconveniently; to block up or fill with what hinders freedom of motion or action; to burden, load.
c1394P. Pl. Crede 765 Comeren her stomakes wiþ curious drynkes. c1430Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 1332 Thou combrest the hous here. 1534Tindale Luke xiii. 7 Cut it doune: why combreth it the grounde? 1624Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 128 Our ship..being so cumbred with the Passengers prouisions. 1707W. Funnell Voy. (1729) 22 The Captain alledging that he would not cumber up his ship. 1874S. Cox Pilgr. Ps. v. 108 Streets cumbered with charred embers. 1885Law Times LXXIX. 153/1 The unwieldy mass of case-law which now cumbers every practitioner's shelves.
5. fig. (of prec. senses).
c1400Destr. Troy 11774 To be cumbrid with couetous. 1493Festyvall (W. de W. 1515) 116 b, The people were so combred with the synne of mawmetry. 1577Test. 12 Patriarchs (1604) 101 When the mind is cumbred with disdain, the Lord departeth from it. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 487 How can any such thought..comber your braines, as to beleve you shalbe able..so to bewitch the Queenes highnesse? 1585Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 142 Much authority is cumbered with many cares. 1676Ray Corr. (1848) 123 Which I thought not fit to cumber the book with. 1813Scott Trierm. ii. x, Cares, that cumber royal sway. 1864Bowen Logic v. 133 [It] would..cumber and lengthen the sentence unnecessarily.
†6. To benumb, stiffen with cold, etc. Obs. Cf. cumble v.
c1325Metr. Hom. 129 His sergant that cumbered was Wit parlesi. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xxi. (1495) 68 As whan the fyngres ben combred and croked for grete colde. 1483[see cumbered 1]. 1825–79Jamieson, Cumber, adj., benumbed. In this sense the hands are said to be cumber'd, West Loth.
†7. pa. pple. Of a hawk: Constipated. Obs. (= encumber 7.)
1486Bk. St. Albans C iv b, A medecine for an hauke combred in the bowillis.
8. Comb., as † cumber-field, a name for the Common Knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare), a troublesome weed in cornfields (in Bulleyn Book of Simples (1562) lf. 32); † cumber-house, one that cumbers or inconveniently occupies a house. Also cumber-ground, -world.
1540Elyot Image Gou. (1556) 94 b, Semblablie shall I be unto hir an unpleasaunte cumbrehouse. |