cumbersome

/ˈkʌmbərsəm/

/ˈkʌmbəsəm/

Other forms: cumbersomely

You have to wrestle a bit with the longish word cumbersome; it's cumbersome, or kind of long and clumsy, to tumble out in a sentence. It's hard to use it gracefully.

A "cumber" is something that slows you down, and though the words aren't related, "lumber" includes big pieces of heavy wood, which might slow down the person carrying them. Moving lumber is cumbersome, because it's a heavy and awkward job. Getting your laundry down the stairs or putting a Rottweiler in the bathtub can be cumbersome too.

Definitions of cumbersome

1. adjective

   difficult to handle or use, especially because of size or weight
   “a cumbersome piece of machinery”

   synonyms: cumbrous

   unmanageable, unwieldy

   difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape
2. adjective

   not elegant or graceful in expression
   “his cumbersome writing style”

   synonyms: awkward, clumsy, ill-chosen, inapt, inept

   infelicitous

   not appropriate in application; defective