encumber

“Traditionally, these big changes are something that you grant to the next mayor because you don’t want to necessarily encumber them,” Matute said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

A shark cannot sink the submarine alone, but it can certainly encumber it.

From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2023

"It was a time to really get to know one another with no outside influences to encumber you," Duffy told the outlet.

From Fox News ● Jul. 3, 2021

It would be even more difficult in the District, which pays from current appropriations and cannot encumber future appropriations under current legislation.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2016

A shocking number of phrases that drop easily from the fingers are bloated with words that encumber the reader without conveying any content.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

“That is expensive, not sustainable and encumbers future generations with further long-term liabilities,” Karsten Smid, an energy expert with the group’s German branch, said in a statement.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024

By now we all know the basic data about college student loan debt—that it totals more than $1.7 trillion, encumbers around 40 million people at present, and cannot be absolved in bankruptcy.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2021

North Korea’s trade with China plunged more than 80% last year, Chinese customs data has shown, as the isolated country’s strict coronavirus lockdown encumbers an economy already burdened by international sanctions.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 19, 2021

He has said that he wears one when he’s concerned about being respectful, but that a jacket encumbers his political pugilism.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 10, 2020

It’s the way civilized man now encumbers his territory, not with great walls or stretches of wire but with a single well-placed device, a neat bundling with the workings of a mind.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

His house was encumbered with liens and he’d sold a “prop plane” that prosecutors cited when arguing he was a risk to abscond, Maitia said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025

He gets straight into it on his new record, on an opening track encumbered with the blindingly literal title, "Opening".

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025

Two questions that have forever encumbered treatment of intellectual responsibility remain with us.

From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2024

The encumbered amount will probably, but not necessarily, be spent eventually.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2024

I myself was encumbered with Judy Poovey and her friends Tracy and Beth.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Those documents alleged that Lisa Marie Presley, Keough’s mother, had borrowed $3.8 million from the company and “gave a deed of trust encumbering Graceland as security.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2024

Forbes reported on how the influx of returns has encumbering retailers since early 2021.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 28, 2022

Personally, I blame the baggy white t-shirt Mickelson was wearing underneath his polo, the added weight encumbering his movement.

From Golf Digest ● Mar. 25, 2020

“They are able to borrow things from each other’s labs and use discoveries without compromising or encumbering their intellectual property.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2016

All the encumbering earth and stones have been removed, so that we can now admire the full proportions of the mighty portal.

From Rambles and Studies in Greece by J. P. Mahaffy