CUMBERSOME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cumbersome mean? 

• CUMBERSOME (adjective)
  The adjective CUMBERSOME has 2 senses:

1. difficult to handle or use especially because of size or weight

2. not elegant or graceful in expression

  Familiarity information: CUMBERSOME used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUMBERSOME (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Difficult to handle or use especially because of size or weight

Synonyms:

cumbersome; cumbrous

Context example:

cumbrous protective clothing

Similar:

unmanageable; unwieldy (difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape)

Derivation:

cumbersomeness (trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not elegant or graceful in expression

Synonyms:

awkward; clumsy; cumbersome; ill-chosen; inapt; inept

Context example:

if the rumor is true, can anything be more inept than to repeat it now?

Similar:

infelicitous (not appropriate in application; defective)

 Context examples 

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.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

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.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

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.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)