Definition of "cumber"

Why asks he what avails him not in fight, / And would but cumber and retard his flight?

1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous ones, […] but cumbers the memory.

a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706

Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.

1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., page 71

[…] the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.

1886, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel. Pub.: Adams & Charles Black, Edinburgh; page 321

[T]hese people, whose name, much as I would like to express my gratitude to them, I may not even give here, nevertheless cumbered themselves with me, sheltered me and protected me from myself.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 290

Why had he not killed himself long ago? Why cumbered he the earth?

1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson

Moreover, that distinctive hair of hers was screwed up into a tight plait and she carried a heavy basket on her hip and a weighted bucket of oysters in her other hand, which cumbered the grace of her body and turned her into the dull replica of any other peasant creature.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 98

Fleet foot on the correi, / Sage counsel in cumber, / Red hand in the foray, / How sound is thy slumber!

1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 3.XVI