lumber
UK/ˈlʌm.bə//ˈlʌm.bɚ/
lumber noun: wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
Noun
lumber (usually uncountable, plural lumbers)
- 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 […].1782, H. de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
- 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.;
- Old 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.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
- 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.1783, William Cowper, letter, 10 November
- Useless or cumbrous material.
- 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
- A 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.
- a. 1746, Lady Grisell Baillie Murray, Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George Baillie
- A baseball bat.
- An erect penis.
Verb
lumber (third-person singular simple present lumbers, present participle lumbering, simple past and past participle lumbered)
- 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.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...
- 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
- 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.
- To heap together in disorder.
- so much stuff lumberd together1677, Thomas Rymer, The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd
- To fill or encumber with lumber.
- to lumber up a room
- To pawn (goods).
lumber meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
lumber in Tamil
- பலகை, தப்பை முதலியனவாக அறுக்கப்பட்ட அரிமரம், வெட்டுமரம், தேவையற்ற, பெறுமதியற்ற சாமான்கள், ஓட்டை உடைசல் குவை
lumber in Urdu
- کاٹھ, لکڑی
lumber in Bengali
- কাঠ, চেরাই করা কাঠ, অব্যবহৃত মালপত্র, ভারি পদক্ষেপে চলা
lumber in Malayalam
- കെട്ടിടംപണിയ്ക്കുപയോഗിക്കുന്ന തടി, പ്രയോജനമറ്റ സാധനങ്ങൾ, വിലയില്ലാത്ത സാധനം, അസ്വാധീനത്തോടെ ചലിയ്ക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- lumber in Kannada
- ಹಳೇ ತಟ್ಟುಮುಟ್ಟು, ಒಡ್ಡೊಡ್ಡಾಗಿ ನಡೆ, ತಡವರಿಸು
- lumber in Punjabi
- ਲੰਬਰ
- lumber in Nepali
- लम्बर, लाम्बर
- lumber in Tagalog
- kalap
- lumber in Arabic
- خَشَب ḵašab
- lumber in Persian
- الوار alvâr, لاپه lâpe
Examples of lumber in a sentence
- The sawmill sells lumber to carpenters and sawdust to gardeners.
- Most lumber yards have evolved into full-service hardware stores.
- Locally sawn lumber—whether from small mills, local yards, or urban logs—often shows much more variation.
Synonyms of lumber
Forms of lumber
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lumbers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lumbers |
| present participle | lumbering |
| past participle | lumbered |
| past | lumbered |
Origin of lumber
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.
Words formed from lumber
Phrases with lumber
Words that rhyme with lumber
Questions about lumber
- What does lumber mean?
- Lumber means wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
- What is lumber in Tamil?
- Lumber in Tamil is பலகை, தப்பை முதலியனவாக அறுக்கப்பட்ட அரிமரம், வெட்டுமரம். See Lumber meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is lumber?
- Lumber can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lumber?
- Lumber is pronounced /ˈlʌm.bə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lumber?
- The plural of lumber is lumbers.
Words near lumber in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lumber (page history and authors); lumber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lumber (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Lumber (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lumber (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lumber (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lumber (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lumber (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lumber.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lumber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lumber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.