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Lumber

//ˈlʌm.bə// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material. Canada, US, uncountable, usually

    "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 […]."

  2. 2
    an implement used in baseball by the batter wordnet
  3. 3
    Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away. archaic, uncountable, usually

    "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."

  4. 4
    the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material wordnet
  5. 5
    Useless or cumbrous material. figuratively, uncountable, usually

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

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  1. 6
    A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. obsolete, uncountable, usually

    "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."

  2. 7
    A baseball bat. slang, uncountable, usually
  3. 8
    An erect penis. slang, uncountable, usually, vulgar
Verb
  1. 1
    To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly. intransitive

    "...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."

  2. 2
    cut lumber, as in woods and forests wordnet
  3. 3
    To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on. transitive

    "They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases."

  4. 4
    move heavily or clumsily wordnet
  5. 5
    To heap together in disorder.

    "so much stuff lumberd together"

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  1. 6
    To fill or encumber with lumber.

    "to lumber up a room"

  2. 7
    To pawn (goods). obsolete, slang, transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

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