# limber
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlɪmbə(ɹ)/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪmbə(ɹ)

### Etymology 1

Unknown; possibly related to limb or limp.

#### Adjective

limber (comparative limberer, superlative limberest)
* 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 (motion picture), 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
* limber honeysuckle
* limberly
* limberneck
* limberness
* limbersome
* limber tail
* limber tail syndrome
* limber up

##### Translations
#### Verb

limber (third-person singular simple present limbers, present participle limbering, simple past and past participle limbered)
* 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
** 1990, LOOM hint book, p. 12
    Go back to the Island and limber up with a few drafts.

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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

#### Noun

limber (plural limbers)
* (military) A two-wheeled vehicle to which a wheeled artillery piece or caisson may be attached for transport.
** 1892, Rudyard Kipling, “Snarleyow”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 37:An' when the smoke 'ad cleared away, before the limber wheels, / There lay the Driver's Brother with 'is 'ead between 'is 'eels.
** 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “At the Window”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), 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.
* (in the plural) The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
* (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
#### Verb

limber (third-person singular simple present limbers, present participle limbering, simple past and past participle limbered)
* (obsolete) To prepare an artillery piece for transportation (i.e., to attach it to its limber.)

##### Antonyms

* unlimber

##### Translations
#### See also

* caisson

### Further reading

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

### References

* ↑ “limber”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Imbler