ham-handed
3
8.3
- adjective
- /ˈhæmˌhændɪd/
- Offensive
:
torpe
- The painter's ham-handed brushstrokes left the canvas looking messy and unrefined.
- a ham-handed attempt
- ham-handed tactics
- a ham-handed approach
Examples
-
Instead, most enterprises experienced ham-handed demands from central government to determine prices, production levels, investment priorities, and so forth.
Academic text (1993) -
The lack of a clearly stated public policy and procedure does, at a remove, make the response look a little ham-handed.
Blog text (29) -
This about-face, coupled with the ham-handed manner in which it was accomplished, added fuel to the fire.
Academic text (2001) -
It's entirely because of their ham-handed and sloppy techniques that many people doubt their competence.
Blog text (1) -
Over the last several years, regimes that carried out ham-handed crackdowns have grown more subtle and sophisticated.
Academic text (2010) -
She had been critical of her government's ham-handed policies in Central America, the bruising ineptness of which she had observed close up.
Fiction book (2000) -
His ham-handed approach to fixing the old car caused more damage than good.
-
She received criticism for her ham-handed handling of the sensitive situation.
Synonyms
73
1.2
Moving in an awkward, unsteady way that causes accidents
7
7.3
Acting awkward and clumsy in movement or when handling things
6
4.8
Not able to move with control so movements look clumsy
5
8.6
Clumsy and not good with their hands
3
6.5
Clumsy with your hands when you try to do things
1
6.3
Clumsy when using the hands, often dropping or breaking things
1
6.8
Clumsy and not skilled, often making mistakes
Not good with your hands and clumsy
Clumsy with hands when doing simple tasks
Someone who often drops things with their hands
Antonyms
How Clumsy
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ham-handed starts with ham, which gives the image of a big piece of meat and, by that picture, big, rough hands; a ham-handed person is 'clumsy' because those hands are not good for careful work. That's why the word means awkward or not skillful.