Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CUM'BER-ING, ppr.

Loading; crowding; obstructing.

CUM'BER-SOME, a.

1. Troublesome; burdensome; embarrassing; vexatious; as, cumbersome obedience. – Sidney.
2. Unwieldy; unmanageable; not easily borne or managed; as, a cumbersome load; a cumbersome machine.

CUM'BER-SOME-LY, adv.

In a manner to encumber. – Sherwood.

CUM'BER-SOME-NESS, n.

Burdensomeness; the quality of being cumbersome and troublesome.

CUM'BRANCE, n.

That which obstructs, retards, or renders motion or action difficult and toilsome; burden; encumbrance; hinderance; oppressive load; embarrassment. – Milton.

CUM'BROUS, a.

1. Burdensome; troublesome; rendering action difficult or toilsome; oppressive; as, a cumbrous weight or charge. Milton. Dryden.
2. Giving trouble; vexatious; as, a cloud of cumbrous gnats. – Spenser.
3. Confused; jumbled; obstructing each other; as, the cumbrous elements. – Milton.

CUM'BROUS-LY, adv.

In a cumbrous manner.

CUM'BROUS-NESS, n.

State of being cumbrous.

CUM'FREY, n.

A genus of plants, the Symphytum; sometimes written comfrey, comfry, and comphry.

CUM'IN, n. [L. cuminum; Gr. κυμινον; Oriental כמון kamon. The verb with which this word seems to be connected, signifies, in Ar. Ch. Syr. and Sam., to retire from sight, to lie concealed.]

An annual plant whose seeds have a bitterish, warm taste, with an aromatic flavor; Cuminum cyminum.

CUM'MING-TON-ITE, n.

A new mineral discovered by Dr. J. Porter, in Cummington and Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, and named by Prof. Dewey. It is massive, the composition thin, columnar, scapiform, stellular, rather incoherent, fibers somewhat curved, luster silky, color ash-gray, translucent to opake, brittle. – Porter. Shepard.

CU'MU-LATE, v.t. [L. cumulo; Russ. kom, a mass or lump; L. cumulus, a heap; Fr. combler, cumuler; Sp. cumular; It. cumulare.]

To gather or throw into a heap; to form a heap; to heap together. Woodward. [Accumulate is more generally used.]

CU-MU-LA'TION, n.

The act of heaping together; a heap. [See Accumulation.]

CU'MU-LA-TIVE, a.

1. Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass. – Bacon.
2. That augments by addition; that is added to something else. In law, that augments, as evidence, facts or arguments of the same kind.

CU'MU-LOSE, a.

Full of heaps.

CUN, v.t.

1. To know. [Not used.] [See con.]
2. To direct the course of a ship. [See Cond, the true orthograpy.]

CUNC-TA'TION, n. [L. cunctor, to delay.]

Delay. [Not much used.]

CUNC-TA'TOR, n.

One who delays or lingers. [Little used.] – Hammond.

CUND, v.t.

To give notice. [See Cond.]

CU'NE-AL, a. [L. cuneus, a wedge. See Coin.]

Having the form of a wedge.

CU'NE-ATE, or CU'NE-A-TED, a.

Wedge-shaped.

CU'NEI-FORM, or CU'NI-FORM, a. [L. cuneus, a wedge, and forma, form.]

Having the shape or form of a wedge.

CUN'NER, n. [lepas.]

A kind of fish, less than an oyster, that sticks close to the rocks. – Ainsworth.

CUN'NING, a. [Sax. cunnan, connan; Goth. kunnan, to know: Sw. kunna, to be able, to know; kunnig, known; also, knowing, skillful, cunning; D. kunnen, can, to be able, to hold, contain, understand, or know; G. können. See Can.]

1. Knowing; skillful; experienced; well-instructed. It is applied to all kinds of knowledge, but generally and appropriately, to the skill and dexterity of artificers, or the knowledge acquired by experience. Esau was a cunning hunter. – Gen. xxiii. I will take away the cunning artificer. – Is. iii. A cunning workman. – Ex. xxxviii.
2. Wrought with skill; curious; ingenious. With cherubs of cunning work shalt thou make them. – Ex. xxvi. [The foregoing senses occur frequently in our version of the Scriptures, but are nearly or quite obsolete.]
3. Artful; shrewd; sly; crafty; astute; designing; as, a cunning fellow. They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere. – South. In this sense, the purpose or final end of the person may not be illaudable; but cunning implies the use of artifice to accomplish the purpose, rather than open, candid, or direct means. Hence,
4. Deceitful; trickish; employing stratagems for a bad purpose.
5. Assumed with subtilty; artful. Accounting his integrity to be but a cunning face of falsehood. – Sidney.

CUN'NING, n.

1. Knowledge; art; skill; dexterity. [Obs.]. Let my right hand forget her cunning. – Ps. cxxxvii.
2. Art; artifice; artfulness; craft; shrewdness; the faculty or act of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose. Hence, in a bad sense, deceitfulness or deceit; fraudulent skill or dexterity. – Locke. Discourage cunning in a child; cunning is the ape of reason.