cumbrous
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adjective Cumbersome.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adjective Unwieldy because of its weight; cumbersome.
- adjective Giving trouble; vexatious.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adjective Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging.
- adjective Giving trouble; vexatious.
Examples
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He had been, though a much younger man, acquainted with the late Sir Hildebrand; and whenever Mrs Rayland and Lord Carloraine met, which they did in cumbrous state twice or thrice a year, their whole conversation consisted of eulogiums on the days that were passed, in expressing their dislike of all that was now acting in a degenerate world, and their contempt of the actors.
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These will not be numbered among the devotees of Waugh, and probably struggle with pompousness, may be cumbrous or even clumsy from time to time.
If I Could Have a Conversation about It: Decline and Fall « Unknowing
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He certainly loved his little illustrations in The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite more than all the lengthy accounts and necessarily cumbrous descriptions of ceremonies which in actuality sometimes go as smoothly as the waters of Shiloah.
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Mr. Jensen describes how his sailors feel cumbrous and fumbling when on land, and the same is somewhat the case for the book.
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John Gielgud, playing Othello at Stratford in 1961, was less happy, complaining that Hall's costumes were "beautiful but cumbrous" and that the elaborate production stalled while Zeffirelli leafed through "his damned press cuttings".
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The cumbrous piles, gradually easing into categories, have littered my rooms all summer; their dispersal is piecemeal and slow.
John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting...
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Here, one would say, is an arm that is useless for sport, cumbrous for self-defense and could not serve any honest purpose, but which in the hands of political fanatics might provoke disaster.
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Monasteries, when they abound in a nation, are clogs in its circulation, cumbrous establishments, centres of idleness where centres of labor should exist.
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It could scarcely be said to be within call, the walls, doors, and panelling of the old place were so cumbrous; but it was within easy reach, in any undress, at any hour of the night, in any temperature.
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Their sloping ceilings, cumbrous rusty locks and grates, and heavy wooden bins and beams, slowly mouldering withal, had a prisonous look, and he had the haggard face of a prisoner.
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He begins shaking his head from side to side, and with each cumbrous vacillation, the hurt in his face widens like an incision.
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The few ostlers and stable-lads about glanced at us now and then, but continued about their tasks, as did the servants who crossed the courtyard, lugging baskets of laundry, bundles of peat, and all the other cumbrous paraphernalia that living in a stone castle demanded.
Note
The word 'cumbrous' comes from a Middle English word meaning 'annoy'.
