Meaning & use
lumber
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Meanings
noununcountableAmerican
Trees that have been cut down and sawn into boards, beams, or planks so they can be used for building or making things.
Grammar: No plural and no 'a': we bought lumber, not 'a lumber'; count it as 'boards' or 'pieces of lumber'.
Patterns
- a stack of lumber
- lumber for something
The builders stacked the lumber beside the garage before starting on the deck.
Lumber prices rose sharply after the storm damaged several mills.
He picked out straight, dry lumber for the bookshelves.
verbintransitive
To move in a slow, heavy, awkward way, usually because of great size or weight.
Grammar: No object; usually followed by a direction word: the truck lumbered up the hill.
Patterns
- lumber along
- lumber toward something
- lumber off
The old bus lumbered up the hill with its engine groaning.
A bear lumbered out of the trees and sniffed the picnic table.
Tired after the match, the players lumbered toward the changing room.
verbtransitiveinformalBritish
To leave someone with a task, cost, or responsibility they do not want.
Grammar: Takes an object and usually 'with' in the passive or active: they lumbered me with the bill.
Patterns
- lumber someone with something
- be lumbered with something
I got lumbered with the washing-up again.
The new manager was lumbered with a budget nobody could explain.
Don't lumber your sister with all the packing.
noununcountableBritishold-fashioned
Old furniture or belongings that are no longer wanted and are stored away, taking up space.
Grammar: Used without 'a'; often appears in compounds such as lumber room.
Patterns
- a room full of lumber
The attic was crammed with lumber from three generations.
She finally cleared the lumber out of the shed.
Grandfather would never throw away any lumber, in case it came in useful.
Word forms
| third person singular | lumbers |
|---|---|
| past tense | lumbered |
| past participle | lumbered |
| -ing form | lumbering |
Common combinations
- stack of lumber
- A tall stack of lumber waited under a tarp behind the shop.
- pressure-treated lumber
- Use pressure-treated lumber for anything that touches the soil.
- lumber yard
- I drove to the lumber yard to order the framing boards.
- lumber along
- The tractor lumbered along the narrow lane.
- be lumbered with
- She was lumbered with organizing the whole event.
Synonyms and how they differ
- timber
- Timber is the usual British word for sawn wood, and in American English it more often means trees or beams still being grown or used structurally.
- wood
- Wood is the general material and can be used of anything, while lumber specifically means wood already cut into building sizes.
- plod
- Plod describes slow, tired walking, but it does not suggest the large, heavy, clumsy bulk that lumber does.
- trudge
- Trudge stresses weary effort over difficult ground, whereas lumber stresses a big, ungainly body or machine.
Word family
- lumbering adjective
- moving in a slow, heavy, clumsy way
- lumberjack noun
- a person whose job is cutting down trees
- lumberyard noun
- a place where cut wood is stored and sold
- lumbermill noun
- a factory where logs are sawn into boards
Commonly confused: lumber or lumbar?
lumber vs lumbar
Lumbar is an adjective for the lower back, as in lumbar pain; it has nothing to do with wood or heavy walking.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'lumber' to mean cut wood for building?
Choose one answer.
Only the third sentence refers to boards and beams. The first is the verb meaning move heavily, the second means being burdened, and the fourth wrongly uses 'lumber' for the spelling 'lumbar'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lumber”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.