Sentence examples for encumbrance a from inspiring English sources

This was still the era — it would end later in that famous decade — when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.

But Dick had made up his mind: stockings of any shade were unnecessary, an encumbrance, a useless expense ("I've already invested enough money in this operation"), and, after all, anyone they encountered would not live to bear witness.

With such a mood prevailing, Europe is perceived by many to be more of an encumbrance, a dictation, a cost factor … rather than a model case.

Even the most compact laptop would be an encumbrance on a walk through the Lake District.

Alec was five when Evelyn was born, but he later recalled that he felt like an only child throughout his youth; Evelyn was "no more than an encumbrance in a corner".

He never abandoned his crusade for the poor ― his speaking tours for A Christmas Carol raised money for charity ― but family joys and responsibilities became an encumbrance to a man consumed by his own greatness.

In 1836, the Public Ledger, a Philadelphia newspaper, proposed the issuance of both a gold dollar and a twenty-dollar piece; they wrote of the latter, "Twenty [silver dollars] are an encumbrance in a pocket ... if we are to have larger coins, let them be of gold.

But Mr. Hirai wrote that after consulting with its financial advisers, Sony believed that owning all of the business would let it better mesh with its core electronics operations, without the legal encumbrances a partial spinoff would entail.

Last night, Obama had the punchy, self-assured air of a President on a roll, freed of old encumbrances (a narrow, nervous Democratic majority in the Senate) and buoyed by both a big jump in his approval ratings and, most important, a growing economy.

In the last two wars (the Arabian gulf and Kosovo), Europe proved to be more of an encumbrance than an ally.

Included in this draft was wording on the principle of the 'unjustified encumbrance of a trade mark', a variant of which is found in one of the articles central to TRIPS and now, some 25 years after its articulation by multinational business interests, the subject of WTO proceedings in which a number of countries are arguing Australia's plain packaging law breaches the principle.