limber

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

No English definition recorded for this entry.

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Pronunciation: /ˈlɪmbə(ɹ)/

Etymology: Unknown; possibly related to limb or limp + -er, as seen in clever, slipper (“slippery”), waker (“alert”), etc.

Flexible, pliant, bendable.
“He's so limber that he can kiss his knee without bending it.”
“Not yet the bargeman that doth rowe / with long and limber oare”

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

A two-wheeled vehicle to which a wheeled artillery piece may be attached for transport. (Some versions have built-in storage bins for ammunition. Either the limber itself or the ammunition box may also be called a caisson.)
“An' when the smoke 'ad cleared away, before the limber wheels, / There lay the Driver's Brother with 'is 'ead between 'is 'eels.”
“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.”
The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.

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

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