Cumber

Part of speech: noun (n.)

Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Obs.] [Written also comber.] A place of much distraction and cumber. Sir H. Wotton. Sage counsel in cumber. Sir W. Scott.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To rest upon as a troublesome or useless weight or load; to be burdensome or oppressive to; to hinder or embarrass in attaining an object, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble. Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight Dryden. Martha was cumbered about much serving. Luke x. 40. Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground Luke xiii. 7. The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous ones, . . . but cumbers the memory. Locke.