encumbering

comparative more encumbering · superlative most encumbering

1. Acting as an encumbrance; cumbersome; burdensome or serving to impede progress.

   There is not a more encumbering impediment to success, than the affection of gratitude.

   1814 March 1, G. Haliton, “Instructions in the Art of Rising in the World”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register, volume 1, number 2

   2 more examples

   We are apt to think the close-fitted turban of the Asiatic a singular head-dress; and such as must be very encumbering in a hot climate; but this light yet bulky covering is, precisely, the defence which experience has taught the wearer to place upon his head, in situations in which the direct impulse of the rays might otherwise prove fatal.

   1843, Luke Howard, Seven Lectures on Meteorology, page 49

   "Why my husband wants him about—" poor Mrs. Lanfear, the kindest of women, privately lamented to her friends; for Dredge, at that time—they kept him all summer at the bungalow—had one of the most encumbering personalities you can imagine.

   1910, Edith Wharton, Tales of Men and Ghosts, page 130

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of encumber