0 something that makes it difficult for you to do something: --
1 a mortgage or other charge on a property, or the fact of a property having a mortgage, etc.: --
2 something that makes it difficult to do things: --
The loquaciousness which had already irritated friends at the university, his words that would "blossom into _ower," now becomes a decided encumbrance since his father disowned him.
A case-marking system is little more than an encumbrance in a language when the forms no longer clearly signal any information which aids in understanding the message.
They were able to carry out their tasks without the encumbrance of a complex organisation; generally each part of their expedition was under their control rather than committees.
Looking at our sundry communal attachments through this morally more critical eye, we find that some of the encumbrances which seem sociologically, psychologically or ontologically necessary also seem morally desirable.
He certainly wanted to be free from distractions and encumbrances when he was working, but nothing in his actions looks like 'bonding' with a particular place.
Then operations will always use the correct function, and only the creation operations will have the encumbrance of taking the function as a parameter.
While linguists might delight in the usefulness and elegance of the concept, for most learners it would be an unnecessary encumbrance.
It was not about negotiating voluntary agreements where access is viewed as an encumbrance on private land but rather an expression of rights.
