- a variation of ham-handed.
ham-fisted
Britishadjective
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Justice Department says that Van Dyke then engaged in a ham-fisted scheme to cover his tracks, routing his profits to a foreign crypto account and asking Polymarket to delete his account.
From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2026
That, or it’s a ham-fisted effort to shut down the rumors about Katie Miller running off, however temporarily, with Elon Musk.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2025
Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy said "ham-fisted prosecutions" were punishing innocent passengers.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2025
“China has taken a ham-fisted approach to public information management,” said Jude Blanchette, a China scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2023
Phony rules, which proliferate like urban legends and are just as hard to eradicate, are responsible for vast amounts of ham-fisted copyediting and smarty-pants one-upmanship.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
