encumbering
Loading with obstacles
Encumbering is weighing down or burdening, whether physically or figuratively.
Heavy gear encumbers a hiker; debt encumbers a property; bureaucratic procedures encumber progress.
The soldiers moved slowly, encumbered by their packs.
The word suggests impediment—something that doesn't prevent action entirely but makes it harder.
Impeding forward progress
- impedingBlocking forward motion
- hinderingCreating obstacles to progress
- hamperingInterfering with progress
- obstructingBlocking forward movement
barricading · clogging · jamming · congesting · bottlenecking · stalling · delaying · slowing
Carried weight or burden
- weightMeasure of heaviness
- onusResponsibility one bears
- liabilityLegal or financial obligation
- obligationRequired task or commitment
responsibility · baggage · millstone · albatross · yoke · impediment · hindrance · drag
blocking
Impeding forward progress
- impedingBlocking forward motion
- hinderingCreating obstacles to progress
- hamperingInterfering with progress
obstructing · barricading · clogging · jamming · congesting · bottlenecking · stalling · delaying · slowing · restricting
load
Carried weight or burden
obligation · responsibility · baggage · millstone · albatross · yoke · impediment · hindrance · drag · strain
weighty
Heavy or significant
clunky · heavy · ponderous · lumbering · burdensome · unmanageable · oversized · clumsy · ungainly
- home activitiescleaning, cooking, sleeping, bathing, eating
- overwhelmingoverwhelming, overpowering, crushing, engulfing, smothering
- restrainingconstraining, restricting, limiting, confining, curbing
encumberingfreeing
Releasing from confinement
liberating · releasing · unshackling · unbinding · emancipating
encumberinglightening
Making lighter in weight/shade
unburdening · relieving · easing · alleviating · disencumbering
cumbersome, encumber, encumbrance, unencumbered, encumbered, disencumber, encumbers, cumber, disencumbered