limber

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪmbə(ɹ)/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmbə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

Unknown; possibly related to limb or limp.

Adjective

limber (comparative limberer, superlative limberest)

1. Flexible, pliant, bendable.

   He's so limber that he can kiss his knee without bending it.

   • 1567, George Turberville, “A Myrrour of the fall of Pride”, in Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets, page 155:

     Not yet the bargeman that doth rowe / with long and limber oare

   • 1998, Joel and Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski, spoken by The Dude (Jeff Bridges):

     This is a very complicated case, Maude. A lot of ins, a lot of outs. Fortunately, I'm adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber.

Derived terms

• limber as a dishrag
• limberly
• limberneck
• limberness
• limbersome
• limber up

 

Translations

flexible — see flexible

Verb

limber (third-person singular simple present limbers, present participle limbering, simple past and past participle limbered)

1. To cause to become limber; to make flexible or pliant.
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

     Her stiff hams, that have not been bent to a civility for ten years past, are now limbered into courtesies three deep at every word

Translations

to cause to become limber

• Finnish: joustavoittaa
• French: flexibiliser (fr)
• Galician: flexibilizar
• Irish: aclaigh
• Italian: flessibilizzare
• Portuguese: flexibilizar
• Romanian: flexibiliza (ro)
• Spanish: flexibilizar (es)

Etymology 2

a limber attached to a field artillery piece and an artillery tractor

For the obsolete limmer, from Old Norse limar (“branches”), plural of lim.

Noun

limber (plural limbers)

1. (military) A two-wheeled vehicle to which a wheeled artillery piece or caisson may be attached for transport.
   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 83:

     As the limber gunners went to the rear, his horse trod in a rabbit-hole and came down, throwing him into a depression of the ground.

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 29:

     we covered the rutted, rattling, dusty pot-holed roads of coastal Victoria, six big Walers in front, the cannon at the rear, and that unsprung cart they called a ‘limber’ in the middle.

2. (in the plural) The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
3. (nautical, in the plural) Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.

Usage notes

• Sometimes the plural limbers was used to refer to a single such vehicle.

Translations

two-wheeled vehicle

• French: avant-train (fr) m
• German: Protze (de) f
• Serbo-Croatian: dvokolica (sh) f, prikolica na dva kotača f
• Spanish: armón m

Verb

limber (third-person singular simple present limbers, present participle limbering, simple past and past participle limbered)

1. (obsolete) To prepare an artillery piece for transportation (i.e., to attach it to its limber.)

Antonyms

• unlimber

Translations

prepare an artillery piece for transportation

• German: aufprotzen

See also

• caisson

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• limber on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• limbers and caissons on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Limbers on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• limber at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “limber”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.