What does cumbrance mean?
Cumbrance is a noun meaning a burden or hindrance — something that weighs a person down or obstructs their affairs. It is closely related to, and now largely displaced by, the longer word 'encumbrance', which shares its root and much of its sense. Historically, 'cumbrance' saw wide use in both general and legal English: deeds might describe land as transferred 'free of all debts and cumbrances', while essayists used it for any oppressive weight, material or figurative. Today the word survives chiefly in formal, legal, or deliberately literary contexts, where it lends an old-fashioned gravity to the idea of being weighed down. Its negative connotation is consistent: a cumbrance is never welcome. Readers will most often encounter it in older texts or in legal phrasing about encumbered property.
nounA burden, hindrance, or encumbrance; something that impedes or weighs down a person or enterprise.
- A burden or source of hindrance, especially one that weighs on a person, property, or undertaking.
"The old mill, long idle and crumbling, had become a financial cumbrance to the estate."
"He sold the farm free of all debts and cumbrances."
"To her, the sprawling house was not an inheritance but a cumbrance she could ill afford."
The plural is most often encountered in legal phrases such as 'free of all cumbrances'.
"The title was conveyed free of all liens and cumbrances."
Before 'encumbrance' took over, lawyers and writers reached for its shorter sibling: 'cumbrance' appears in Shakespeare's era as the go-to word for anything that drags you down.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cumbrance
Cumbrance derives from the verb 'cumber', which entered Middle English in the medieval period from Anglo-Norman and Old French 'combrer'/'cumbrer', meaning to hinder or block. The French verb is generally traced to a Germanic source related to blocking or damming a way. The noun form 'cumbrance' arose in Middle English to denote the state of being cumbered or the thing that causes it, and it flourished through Early Modern English alongside its prefixed cousin 'encumbrance'.
How cumbrance is actually used
Cumbrance is now largely archaic or formal, surviving mainly in legal language (as in property 'free of all cumbrances') and in literary registers. In everyday modern English, 'encumbrance', 'burden', or 'hindrance' are preferred.
Easily confused with cumbrance
Cucumber is an edible gourd; cumbrance means a burden or hindrance — the two share no meaning despite superficial spelling similarity.