▪ I. lumbering, vbl. n.1
(ˈlʌmbərɪŋ)
[f. lumber v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of lumber v.1
| 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 486 Wee heard a noise..continuing with increase of lumbring. 1782 Cowper Gilpin 232 The lumbering of the wheels. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xviii, The lumbering of the old guns backwards and forwards shook the battlements. |
▪ II. lumbering, vbl. n.2
(ˈlʌmbərɪŋ)
[f. lumber v.2 + -ing1.]
1. The action of filling with lumber.
| 1775 in Ash, Suppl. |
2. The trade or business of a lumberer; dealing or working in timber.
| 1792 J. Belknap Hist. New-Hampsh. III. 213 Towns adjoining the river, in which lumbering was formerly the chief employment. 1898 G. F. R. Henderson Stonewall Jackson I. i. 10 Young men had to serve a practical apprenticeship to lumbering and agriculture. |
b. attrib., as lumbering-camp, lumbering season.
| 1857 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 143 Here were the ruins of an old lumbering-camp. 1873 Wisconsin Rep. XXXI. 424 The coming lumbering season. |
▪ III. lumbering, ppl. a.
(ˈlʌmbərɪŋ)
[f. lumber v.1 and v.2 + -ing2.]
Ponderous in movement, inconveniently bulky. lit. and fig.
| 1593 Nashe Four Lett. conf. G 3 Master Stannyhurst..trod a foule lumbring boystrous wallowing measures [sic] in his translation of Virgil. 1594 ― Terrors Nt. Wks. (Grosart) III. 275 And yet me thinkes it comes off too goutie and lumbring. 1606 J. Raynolds Dolarney's Prim. (1880) 118 There might be heard, the hideous lumbring swasher. 1736 New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1870) IV. 713 We had only time..to save our lumbering stuff, such as tables and chairs. 1792 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode to the Pope ii. Wks. III. 256 Upon the sportsman's breaking back, A lumb'ring eighteen pounder. 1811 Scott Fam. Lett. (1894) I. vii. 229, I agree with you respecting the lumbering weight of the stanza. 1855 Mrs. Gatty Parables fr. Nat. Ser. i. (1869) 3 A caterpillar, who was strolling along a cabbage leaf in his odd lumbering way. 1885 Sat. Rev. 6 June 758/1 How lumbering all their rapier play Beside your finished carte and tierce. 1900 Longm. Mag. Oct. 574 It was a great heavy lumbering travelling coach. |
† b. Rumbling. Obs.
| 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 159 A lumbring noise as of fire. 1684 Ibid. ii. 27. |
Hence ˈlumberingly adv., ˈlumberingness.
| 1850 Bentl. Misc. Jan. 12 ‘Come—be alive!’ and Meg moved lumberingly out. 1860 Rutledge 112, I..ran up stairs followed lumberingly by the housekeeper. 1869 Echo 13 Feb., The intolerable lumberingness of its action [sc. of the House of Commons]. 1885 D. C. Murray Rainbow Gold III. vi. iii. 214 A drunken sailor who howled a song and danced lumberingly. 1900 N. Munro in Blackw. Mag. Oct. 451/1 The beast..fell lumberingly on its side. |