lumber

Meaning

Noun

1. (Canada, US, uncountable, usually) Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
2. (archaic, uncountable, usually) Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away.
3. (figuratively, uncountable, usually) Useless or cumbrous material.
4. (obsolete, uncountable, usually) A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn.
5. (slang, uncountable, usually) A baseball bat.
6. (slang, uncountable, usually, vulgar) An erect penis.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.
2. (transitive) To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on.
3. To heap together in disorder.
4. To fill or encumber with lumber.
5. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To pawn (goods).

Synonyms

timber

wood

🪵

board

log

boards

pound

💷

junk

rubbish

baseball bat

timber

stuff

bole

plod

ballast

rumble

converted timber

chop down

floor

hack

heap

hew

hew out

laths

lignum

logs

noise

paste

pick

⛏️

piece of junk

plank

planks

plates

rummage

sawn timber

shamble

softwood

stock

thrash

totter

trash

trudge

unwieldy

whomp

work over

clutter up

cut timber

forest products

split wood

stavewood

scantlings

Translations

legname

Bauholz

madera

🪵

bois de charpente

Holz

🪵

bois

🪵

ενέχυρο

ξυλεία

madera aserrada

madeira serrada

madeira

🪵

cianfrusaglie

fusta

🪵

timmerhout

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈlʌm.bə/

Etymology

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.