Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Cumber

Cumber (k?m"b?r) , transitive verb

[Old English combren, cumbren,Old French combrer to hinder, from Late Latin cumbrus a heap, from Latin cumulus; compare Sanskrit {not transcribed} to increase, grow strong. Compare Cumulate.]

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

Cumber (k?m"b?r) , noun

[Compare encombre hindrance, impediment. See Cuber,v.]

Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Obsolete]
A place of much distraction and cumber. — Sir H. Wotton
Sage counsel in cumber. — Sir W. Scott