ham-handed

American

[ham-han-did] / ˈhæmˈhæn dɪd /

especially British, ham-fisted

adjective

clumsy, inept, or heavy-handed.

a ham-handed approach to dealing with people that hurts a lot of feelings.

Other Word Forms

hamhandedness noun

Etymology

Origin of ham-handed

First recorded in 1915–20

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.

Last month, following a ham-handed government attempt to ban most social-media apps, thousands of young protesters took to the streets of Kathmandu, the capital.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 8, 2025

That’s the bigger story that is being lost in the government’s egregious, ham-handed attempt to turn Ábrego García into an object lesson.

From Salon • Jul. 17, 2025

Obama, a Harvard alum, described the freeze as "unlawful and ham-handed".

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2025

“I think there were much better ways for the Legislature to go about addressing their concerns, rather than this ham-handed approach.”

From Seattle Times • May 7, 2024

I was getting ham-handed and mutton-fisted, flapping the old things every day; felt I wanted to stunt about a bit.

From Mr. Punch's History of the Great War by Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023