heavy-handed
oppressive; harsh: a heavy-handed master.
clumsy; graceless: a heavy-handed treatment of the theme.
Origin of heavy-handed
1Other words from heavy-handed
- heav·y-hand·ed·ly, adverb
- heav·y-hand·ed·ness, noun
Words Nearby heavy-handed
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use heavy-handed in a sentence
The clichés about football-obsessed husbands and frustrated wives are pretty heavy-handed.
‘A Gronking to Remember’ Speed Read: 8 Naughtiest Bits | Emily Shire | January 7, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTSo was the importance of protest itself, which he vowed to protect from the heavy-handed policies employed by his predecessors.
Eric Garner Protesters Have a Direct Line to City Hall | Jacob Siegel | December 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSome were funny, while some were more heavy handed slams of ISIS simply framed in comedic terms.
heavy-handed police work like that carried out by Burge and, apparently, Evans, gets results.
I Was Beaten By Chicago’s Dirtiest Cop, Lawsuit Contends | Justin Glawe | September 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTShe said Mars Hill “engages in heavy-handed discipline through a hierarchical structure.”
Here John was in charge of the blacks and under his heavy-handed rule the cases were rapidly stowed away.
The Blind Lion of the Congo | Elliott WhitneyIt is the same fierce, hard-living, heavy-handed, very cunning service out of which the Navy as we know it to-day was born.
Sea Warfare | Rudyard KiplingHe asked, after a moment, "Don't you think that would be rather a heavy-handed way of dealing with the matter?"
Imaginary Interviews | W. D. HowellsThose heavy-handed mechanics in the district motor pool, for example.
Final Weapon | Everett B. Cole"If Happy's ghost don't git to playin' music too much," he added with his heavy-handed wit.
The Flying U's Last Stand | B. M. Bower
British Dictionary definitions for heavy-handed
clumsy
harsh and oppressive
Derived forms of heavy-handed
- heavy-handedly, adverb
- heavy-handedness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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