dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

cumbersome
in a sentence

show 91 more with this conextual meaning
  • He was a wild, hairy young man in a purple caftan—oblivious to how the girls stared at him and seemingly held together by wires and cords that entangled him in his cumbersome recording equipment.†   (source)
  • "Beautiful," said an older, female voice, and Celaena pivoted, the yards of cumbersome fabric twisting with her.†   (source)
  • Already short of breath and struggling with the cumbersome volume, Langdon descended the ladder.†   (source)
  • The buzzards feeding in the median heaved their cumbersome bodies into the air.†   (source)
  • I'd offered to carry it for a while, for it did look cumbersome, but she kept saying she was fine, that it was her gear and she would manage it, which quite impressed me.†   (source)
  • Pulling the magbelt out from beneath the hover, she folded it at its hinges, forming a less cumbersome metal rod.†   (source)
  • It was only a few kilometers, but their suitcases were cumbersome and heavy.†   (source)
  • She had great difficulty walking; the regalia of an apprentice geisha is so cumbersome.†   (source)
  • And so the eight months are put behind them, quickly shed, quickly forgotten, like clothes worn for a special occasion, or for a season that has passed, suddenly cumbersome, irrelevant to their lives.†   (source)
  • Sympathy could start a fire without flint or lift a heavy weight without cumbersome ropes and pulleys.†   (source)
  • She looked down at her damp, dirty birthday dress: a flouncy thing, tight at the waist and poofing out below her knees in a cumbersomely wide circle, its collar high and floppy and ruffled.†   (source)
  • Deliberations were often slow and cumbersome, so these gatherings were not particularly thrilling.†   (source)
  • They used to wear very little, but the ladies of England introduced the Mother Hubbard, a long, cumbersome, ill-fitting dress, completely shapeless, that inevitably gets dragged in the fire, causing burns aplenty.†   (source)
  • Although SEALs are known for their small numbers and efficiency, the military as a whole is huge and cumbersome— requiring us to be patient.†   (source)
  • They are unwieldy and cumbersome, and for generations the craft has been used to teach BUD/S students to pull a paddle as a tight-knit crew, blast their way through the incoming surf, nig properly, and drag the thing into place in a regimented line for inspection on the sandy beach about every seven minutes.†   (source)
  • He sketched the letters of the name in large floral script, as if seeking to dispatch the cumbersome duty of addressing the card as quickly as possible, before advancing to the message itself.†   (source)
  • Sherpas would progressively establish a series of four camps above Base Camp — each approximately 2,000 feet higher than the last — by shuttling cumbersome loads of food, cooking fuel, and oxygen from encampment to encampment until the requisite materiel had been fully stocked at 26,000 feet on the South Col. If all went according to Hall's grand plan, our summit assault would be launched from this highest campCamp Four-a month hence.†   (source)
  • The process was perhaps strange, certainly cumbersome, but it seemed to work fine.†   (source)
  • "That's enough practice," I said and started to take off the cumbersome costume, but they wouldn't let me.†   (source)
  • Matthew and I carry her empty chair after her, which is cumbersome and heavy, but not impossible to manage.†   (source)
  • They would have taken the oxen back to the Varden, but the animals were too slow and cumbersome.†   (source)
  • "Let's recess for fifteen minutes," the judge said, tapping his gavel as he lifted his cumbersome frame and waddled off the bench, black robe flowing behind.†   (source)
  • Now, upstairs, she changed into faded Levis and a green sweater, and fastened round her wrist her third most valued belonging, a gold watch; her closest cat friend, Evinrude, ranked above it, and surmounting even Evinrude was Bobby's signet ring, cumbersome proof of her "going-steady" status, which she wore (when she wore it; the least flare-up and off it came) on a thumb, for even with the use of adhesive tape its man-size girth could not, be made to fit a more suitable finger.†   (source)
  • They were cumbersome to skin, and he and Gus had no need for so much meat.†   (source)
  • A cumbersome bear-love that, given any rein, would suck their breath away in its crying need for honey.†   (source)
  • There's been lots of turmoil at cumbersome federal departments like agriculture lately-more restructuring, though, than actual cost cutting.†   (source)
  • She did not want to rely on her Power-Book, which would just be cumbersome to drag around.†   (source)
  • If visitors came in the morning, they began the cumbersome process of leave-taking around noontime.†   (source)
  • Later on, some of them had had a go with it, however, and considered it a bit cumbersome for a real fight.†   (source)
  • By rights the two-handed greatsword should have been a deal more cumbersome than Jon's long-sword, but the wildling wielded it with blinding speed.†   (source)
  • While this system sounds very cumbersome to us, back in 1871 it was considered quite speedy and efficient.†   (source)
  • One behind the other, the squadrons marched up the field, executed a cumbersome turn around the reviewing stand and marched down the field and back to their barracks.†   (source)
  • Though no one directed that it should be so, the slow, cumbersome work of mountain climbing fell naturally to him and to Darsney.†   (source)
  • Sergeant Lowery documented the ascent with his cumbersome camera.†   (source)
  • I had a flash of her face the day we'd been discussing names, how she'd rushed to compliment my own cumbersome middle name, just because she assumed it would make me feel better.†   (source)
  • The only problem had been that it was difficult to handle such a large, cumbersome machine.†   (source)
  • He managed the cumbersome tableware as if it were its normal size and shape.†   (source)
  • I was wearing my cumbersome op gear over a winter jacket as I tried to move like a cat.†   (source)
  • Quickly, Max stripped off his tunic and hauberk, swapping the heavy, cumbersome rings for a garment more supple than linen.†   (source)
  • Though cumbersome, the binoculars would at least feel comfortable and familiar in his hands.†   (source)
  • Though a little lower at the withers and nearly half a foot shorter, nose to tail, Seabiscuit seemed a cumbersome giant in comparison.†   (source)
  • Again the slow, cumbersome elevator; the faded ornate lobby now half filled with Parisians talking manically, many heading for the bar and their prenoon apéritifs; and again the hot bright summer street outside and the maddening congested traffic.†   (source)
  • Even the bed cooperates, as I slide like a whisper under the cumbersome quilts, sit up in bed, motionless.†   (source)
  • The combinations so obtained would he exceedingly numerous, useless and cumbersome.†   (source)
  • And we have something less cumbersome and equally lethal.†   (source)
  • Get them out of those long, cumbersome clothes and they were free spirits.†   (source)
  • With cumbersome slowness we are walking from one end of the huge living room to the other.†   (source)
  • On the table was some official stationery in neat stacks, an orderly collection of pens and pencils, a cumbersome black office typewriter with the emblazoned trademark of Adler.†   (source)
  • He mowed Bennington's grass, moved cumbersome early American furniture around Mrs. Bennington's plush antique shop, and acted as Bennington's chauffeur, valet, and servant when the occasion demanded it.†   (source)
  • His farm car, heaped with sacks of grain and two harrows, stood outside the cinema, looking out of place and cumbersome; and Mary looked through the back window at these unfamiliar objects and smiled.†   (source)
  • A lance was heavier and more cumbersome than a sword, and swords were proving trial enough.†   (source)
  • He lowered his head in shame, his cumbersome face burning.†   (source)
  • He has no shield, Jon reminded himself, and that monster sword's too cumbersome for parries.†   (source)
  • The crossbow penetrated better, some insisted, but it was slow and cumbersome to reload.†   (source)
  • It's black and white, taken by one of those boxy, cumbersome flash cameras from before the war, with their accordion-pleat nozzles and their well-made leather cases that looked like muzzles, with straps and intricate buckles.†   (source)
  • After completing a set of tedious and cumbersome matrix calculations, she blew on her hands to warm them, and picked up the latest issue of the Journal of Astrophysics to take a break.†   (source)
  • Chain saws were relatively new then; the Eastman Company used them for their logging operations, but very selectively—they were heavy and cumbersome, not nearly so light and powerful as they are today.†   (source)
  • One of the guards relieved Melisandre of her cumbersome standard, driving the staff deep into the soft ground.†   (source)
  • In the heavy vault under the barracks where he by ancient law was now required to abide, away from his mother's breast, hung his apprentice weapons, heavy cumbersome things of steel and nickel.†   (source)
  • He nodded to Cooper appreciatively and joined his fellows in lowering a cumbersome lifeboat over the side.†   (source)
  • Roran started to lift his shield, along with the spearlodged in it, but it was too heavy and cumbersome for him to protect himself with.†   (source)
  • He may have feared his litter would make too tempting a target for brigands, or that it would prove too cumbersome in the high passes of the Boneway.†   (source)
  • There was, therefore, no opportunity to object to Moody's demand that I wear a chador but as I donned the cumbersome robe I realized that it was filthy.†   (source)
  • Two men hauled the cumbersome canvas hose as close to the flames as possible and aimed a stream of water at the burning building.†   (source)
  • He felt like some kind of giant reptile, moving cumbersomely about, dragging his tunnel like a thick tail behind him.†   (source)
  • Then she realized that the blood had soaked through the sheet into the featherbed, so she bundled that up as well, but it was big and cumbersome, hard to move.†   (source)
  • Snowden was lying on his back on the floor with his legs stretched out, still burdened cumbersomely by his flak suit, his flak helmet, his parachute harness and his Mae West.†   (source)
  • Mahtob would need a gray uniform, coat, pants, and macknaya scarf sewn up the front instead of tied, a bit more cumbersome than the roosarie, but not quite as bad as the chador I was instructed to bring Mahtob on a certain day for a mother and daughter meeting.†   (source)
  • Nine-and-ninety ships we had ...a cumbersome beast to shepherd across the seas to the far end of the world.†   (source)
  • The flat level ground allowed the charger to get up a good speed, but it also made it easy for the eunuch to dodge the cumbersome fourteen-foot lance.†   (source)
  • His great mass of foot he had left behind at Bitterbridge with his young queen, his wagons, carts, draft animals, and all his cumbersome siege machinery, while Renly himself led his knights and freeriders in a swift dash east.†   (source)
  • Cumbersome and slow-moving, the turtle made for an easy shot, and his archers and crossbowmen soon turned it into a lumbering wooden hedgehog ...but the wet hides protected it, just as they had the mantlets, and the flaming arrows guttered out almost as soon as they struck.†   (source)
  • I saw shadowy rooms paneled in dark walnut and furnished with cumbersome pieces in mission oak; on one table would be the menorah, its candles in orderly array but unlit, while nearby on another table would be the Torah, or perhaps the Talmud, opened to a page which had just undergone pious scrutiny by the elder Lapidus.†   (source)
  • I was sure to be followed, because of the slow cumbersomeness of the car approaching the Loop.†   (source)
  • He was still cumbersomely flying after the lure and its slimy giblets spoiled by the sun.†   (source)
  • To break open the cupboard—or the plate chest—would be a noisy and cumbersome proceeding and one which could hardly be carried out without attention being attracted to what was going on.†   (source)
  • Or else, as it seems, the big heavy personal van, dark and cumbersome, can't start into strange terrain.†   (source)
  • The rest of us had to go to the dispensary—which was like the dream of a multitude of dentists' chairs, hundreds of them in a space as enormous as an armory, and green bowls with designs of glass grapes, drills lifted zigzag as insects' legs, and gas flames on the porcelain swivel trays—a thundery gloom in Harrison Street of limestone county buildings and cumbersome red streetcars with metal grillwork on their windows and monarchical iron whiskers of cowcatchers front and rear.†   (source)
  • On the stairway was the cumbersome step of Doc Vickerson.†   (source)
  • Life is real again, and the useless and cumbersome and mischievous have to die.†   (source)
  • The volumes were heavy, cumbersome.†   (source)
  • Her purchases were taken straight up to her own chamber, and she at once attempted to lock them in a box that was her very own property; but finding them too cumbersome she wrapped them in large sheets of brown paper, and stood them on the floor in a corner.†   (source)
  • Mounted on lumbering wooden carriages they were hampered with cumbersome harness of breechen and strong side-tackles for running them out.†   (source)
  • He felt that it would take all time, more than he could ever spare, to glue these strange cumbersome pictures into the scrap-book of his life.†   (source)
  • For the schoolhouse had been partly furnished by the managers, and the only cumbersome article possessed by the master, in addition to the packing-case of books, was a cottage piano that he had bought at an auction during the year in which he thought of learning instrumental music.†   (source)
  • At the turnpike scene, where Bess and Turpin are hotly pursued at midnight by the officers, and the half-awake gatekeeper in his tasselled nightcap denies that any horseman has passed, Coggan uttered a broad-chested "Well done!" which could be heard all over the fair above the bleating, and Poorgrass smiled delightedly with a nice sense of dramatic contrast between our hero, who coolly leaps the gate, and halting justice in the form of his enemies, who must needs pull up cumbersomely and wait to be let through.†   (source)
  • One was found to have too small a print for a child's eyes, and the other to be too cumbersome for her to carry about.†   (source)
  • Groangrousegurgling Toft's cumbersome whirligig turns slowly the room right roundabout the room.†   (source)
  • With clang tinkle boomhammer tallyho hornblower blue green yellow flashes Toft's cumbersome turns with hobbyhorse riders from gilded snakes dangled, bowels fandango leaping spurn soil foot and fall again.†   (source)
  • The queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten, to make me clothes, not much thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome till I was accustomed to them.†   (source)
  • Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve feet square, and ten high, for the convenience of travelling; because the other was somewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's lap, and cumbersome in the coach; it was made by the same artist, whom I directed in the whole contrivance.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)