cumberworld en · NOUN
Etymology
From Middle English combre-world, combreworldes pl, from the phrase *combren the world; equivalent to cumber + world.
Meanings
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(derogatory, obsolete) Someone who, or something which, is an encumbrance on the world; a useless person or thing.
His pouch was now all void and empty, his future years were like to be sour, thoughty, and woe-begone, and himself a cumberworld, unsicker of his scarce and slender livelihood in lickpenny London, forced to beg, steal, or starve, and gaping after honest death.
1894, James Hamilton Wylie, History of England under Henry the Fourth, volume 2, pages 22–23:A cumber-world, yet in the world am left, / A fruitles plot, with brambles ouergrowne, / Miſliued man of my vvorlds ioy bereft, / Hart-breaking cares the ofspring of my mone.
1593, Michael Drayton, “The Second Eglog”, in Idea the Shepheards Garland, […], London: […] [T. Orwin] for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, page 6:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| cumber-world | alternative | lexicographic | |
| cumberworlds | Number=Plur | lexicographic |