What's the difference between cumber and encumber?

Cumber


Definition:

  • (v. t.) 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.
  • (v.) Trouble; embarrassment; distress.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Not only did he survive the point-blank attack, which killed his cameraman and close friend Simon Cumbers, but a year later he returned to work as the BBC's security correspondent.
  • (2) Dr Peter Dwyer, Ruskin College Oxford; Alexander Anievas, University of Cambridge; Dr Vaughan Ellis, Edinburgh Napier University; and Dr Andrew Cumbers, University of Glasgow, have also put their name to the letter.
  • (3) On to Hamilton now and this is incredibly awkward, Cumbers doesn't know what to say and he's waffling.

Encumber


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To impede the motion or action of, as with a burden; to retard with something superfluous; to weigh down; to obstruct or embarrass; as, his movements were encumbered by his mantle; his mind is encumbered with useless learning.
  • (v. t.) To load with debts, or other legal claims; as, to encumber an estate with mortgages.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While they may always be encumbered by censorship in a way that HBO is not, the success of darker storylines, antiheroes and the occasional snow zombie will not be lost in an entertainment industry desperate to maintain its share of the audience.
  • (2) Genetic analyses of DNA restriction and modification mechanisms have been encumbered by the inability to rigorously select for mutant phenotypes associated with these systems.
  • (3) John Pugh, a former Lib Dem health spokesman, said: "There is no compelling reason why the NHS in England should be encumbered with this level of bean counting … the NHS should be like other more efficient public services run on simple best-value principles.
  • (4) Rather than conditions of respect and regard, lesbians report atmospheres of intimidation and humiliation, which encumber their interactions with health care providers.
  • (5) The drag coefficient was high compared with that of phocid seals examined during gliding or towing experiments, indicating an increased drag encumbered by actively swimming seals.
  • (6) These burdens all add to the cost of trade and therefore encumber economic growth in developing countries.
  • (7) Fibroses occurred frequently as a result, which to date encumber nerve adhesive.
  • (8) Distal osteotomies are encumbered by nonunion problems.
  • (9) This encumbers research on the psychoanalytic process.
  • (10) Often children are not discovered by teachers who are overwhelmed by large classes or encumbered with a complicated curriculum.
  • (11) By contrast, comparison of the time necessary to gain accurate control over individual PTNs from contralateral cortex showed the epileptic monkeys to be significantly encumbered when compared to nonepileptic monkeys.
  • (12) One major reason is perhaps that the Australian Labor leader is chosen by the party's MPs and not by the more cumbersome but wider democratic process that Labour chose for itself nearly 30 years ago, thus encumbering itself with an institutional inertia factor that hugely benefits incumbents.
  • (13) Different Therapy of Bromisoval Poisoning and Primary Detoxication by Gastrotomy or Duodenotomy: Bromisoval poisoning is encumbered with a high complication rate and mortality.
  • (14) Like many US enterprises seeking to push drone technology, Amazon has been encumbered by regulations introduced by the FAA in an attempt to prevent unpiloted drone aircraft from endangering passenger planes and denting America’s unparalleled global reputation for air safety.
  • (15) Its application in a kinematic gait-analysis system is demonstrated, employing minimally encumbering electrogoniometry and foot-contact switches.
  • (16) The measurement of microdosimetric distributions for the purpose of estimating the quality factor, Q, may be encumbered in pulsed radiation fields--as produced, for instance, by accelerators with low duty cycle--because of a signal pile-up.
  • (17) Occupations tend to be more of a factor in white males, where occupational choice is least encumbered, than in black males or in females.
  • (18) The polar head group of DOPA, being more negatively charged and sterically less encumbered than diester phosphate ligands, most probably was responsible for this adherence of the lipid bilayers to the crystal surfaces.
  • (19) It is suggested that in sick premature infants, when the head is encumbered by various types of apparatus, this technique might prove more feasible than HC measurement.
  • (20) Traditional manual reporting systems are encumbered by the necessity of transcription of test information onto hard copy reports and then the subsequent distribution of such reports into the hands of the user.