clumsy
Americanadjective
-
awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace.
He is very clumsy and is always breaking things.
- Synonyms:
- lubberly, lumbering, ungainly, ungraceful
-
awkwardly done or made; unwieldy; ill-contrived.
He made a clumsy, embarrassed apology.
- Synonyms:
- inept, heavy-handed, bumbling, inexpert, maladroit, unskillful, unhandy
adjective
-
lacking in skill or physical coordination
-
awkwardly constructed or contrived
Other Word Forms
- clumsily adverb
- clumsiness noun
Etymology
Origin of clumsy
1590–1600; clums benumbed with cold (now obsolete) + -y 1; akin to Middle English clumsen to be stiff with cold, dialectal Swedish klumsig benumbed, awkward, klums numbskull, Old Norse klumsa lockjaw. See clam 2
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.
Government intervention was "clumsy and came too late," said Karen Bradley, chair of the Home Affairs Committee.
From BBC
After a shooting in L.A.’s Fashion District, detectives sifted through encrypted messages to track down a sophisticated but clumsy band of thieves.
From Los Angeles Times
The Bath wing copped a first unfortunate yellow card for not releasing the tackled man and then a clumsy second, blundering into an airborne Kyle Steyn.
From BBC
Who wants to sit through a fictitious novelist’s clumsy drafts?
From Los Angeles Times
With cold, clumsy fingers Marlie unbuckled his pack and pulled out the clothes he had stripped off before the swim.
From Literature
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.
