Forms: 5 lymor(e, 5–6 lymour, 6 lymowr, lym(m)er, Sc. lymnar, 6–7, 9 limmer, 9 limber. [Of obscure origin. The F. limon = sense 1 below; the derivative limonière means ‘the shafts and connected framework of a vehicle.’ If the form lymnar in Douglas be genuine, it may be an adoption of limonière, and perh. the forms lymour, etc., though recorded earlier, may be corruptions of this.]
1. The shaft of a cart or carriage. Obs. exc. dial.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 123. A crouper for the lymour, price iiijs.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., xxxiii. The lymnaris [of the chariot] wer of birneist gold. Ibid. (1513), Æneis, IX. vi. 23. The cartis stand with lymowris bendyt strek.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Coriol. (1595), 248. They made him carrie a limmer on his shoulders that is fastened to the Axeltree of a couch [= coach].
1611. Florio, Timóne,… the limmer or beame of a Wagon or Waine.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 982. (Pitcoal) The rolley horses have a peculiar kind of shafts, commonly made of iron, named limbers, the purpose of which is to prevent the carriage from overrunning them.
1860. Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Newcastle Terms), Limmer’s, the shafts by which the horses draw.
† b. Short for limber-horse.
1632. Sherwood, A limmer, limonier. Voyez a Thill-horse.
2. Mil. (In early use pl.) The detachable fore part of a gun-carriage, consisting of two wheels and an axle, a pole for the horses, and a frame which holds one or two ammunition-chests. It is attached to the trail of the gun-carriage proper by a hook.
Quot. 1628 seems to be an erroneous explanation.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 84. ij paire lymores with boltes forlokkes kayes lynces and a taile pynne for the said Curtowe.
1578. Bourne, Invent. & Devices, xcvi. 85. The Lymers that the horses doth draw in.
1628. R. Norton, Gunner, lix. 130. The sides and Cheekes [of the Cariage] called Limbers.
1801. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1837), I. 325. A six-pounder, its carriage and limber, and ammunition in the limber box.
1851. Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers, xix. 96. Twelve pieces of Field Artillery, with their Carriages and Limbers.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 103. No. 7 attends the limber and serves ammunition.
3. attrib., as (sense 1 b) † limber croup, † hame, pillow; limber-box, -chest Mil., the ammunition box carried by a limber; limber-hook (see quot.); limber-horse dial., the horse that is placed between the shafts; † limber-plank Mil. (see quot.); limber-saddle, a cart-saddle.
1801. *Limber-box [see sense 2].
1876. Jas. Grant, Hist. India, I. xxiv. 129/1. Wood’s field-guns had only five rounds left in the limber-boxes.
1888. Col. W. F. Fox, in Century Mag., May, 103/2. Some of whom [the enemy], springing nimbly on his *limber-chests, shot down his horses and then his men.
1483. Wardr. Acc., in Grose, Antiq. Repert. (1807), I. 47. *Lymour crowps … *Lymour pilows.
1876. Voyle, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), s.v. Limber, At the back of the limber is an iron hook or pintle, termed a *limber-hook, to which the trail of the gun carriage is attached…. The limber-hook is stated to have been invented … in 1804.
1628. R. Norton, Gunner, lx. 131. The *Limber Planks or sides of the Cariage must be 4 and a halfe, or 5 dyametres broad, one thicke.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 123. For a *lymour sadell price vs.; for a payre *lymour hamys garnissht xviijd.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), VI. vii. The flap of a limber saddle rolling up and galling and pinching your calf.
