Literary notes about Encumbrance (AI summary)
In literature, "encumbrance" is used to signify any burden—physical, emotional, or societal—that hinders progress or usefulness. It may refer to tangible obstacles, such as cumbersome baggage or unwieldy additions that impede movement ([1], [2], [3]), or it may express a figurative weight, such as wealth, bad habits, or even personal liability that restricts freedom and efficiency ([4], [5], [6]). In some works, the term highlights social or economic disadvantages that bind individuals or impede development ([7], [8]), while in others it portrays a personal shortcoming that renders one a burden to others ([9], [10]). This versatility underscores the layered meaning of "encumbrance" as not merely an obstruction but also a commentary on the costs—both practical and symbolic—of holding on to what may ultimately be unnecessary.
- Torrence blew out the light, and threw the lantern away as a useless encumbrance, and we plodded along through the dark.
— from The Secret of the Earth by Charles Willing Beale - The cargo of the sloop hoisted on to the deck by the capstan, compact as he had made it, was an encumbrance.
— from Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo - The next moment he had whipped out his scout knife and cut his foot loose of the encumbrance.
— from The Boy Scouts at the Panama Canal by John Henry Goldfrap - Be patient till they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of wealth.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The old body of sin cannot be stripped off in a moment; the old encumbrance of bad habits cannot be sloughed off like a serpent's coil.
— from The Essentials of Spirituality by Felix Adler - "A year ago I should have been of use to you, and now I should be an encumbrance; and I like you for telling me so quite honestly."
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - They reduced the external shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding themselves of this burden and encumbrance.
— from The Whence and the Whither of Man A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by John M. (John Mason) Tyler - At that time old age was a distinction; nowadays it is an [Pg 22] encumbrance.
— from The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 1 (of 6)Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 1 by Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de - But I happen to be an encumbrance in the way of another man.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - One of my father's first objects was to prevent him from being any encumbrance to you.
— from The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
