heavy-handed
adjective
oppressive; harsh.
heavy-handedness
-
a word derived from
heavy-handed.
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.
Xi appears to understand the lesson from the 1960s, when Soviet heavy-handedness toward China as the “younger brother” helped fracture that earlier alliance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
District Judge David O. Carter, a no less colorful figure than Yagman, has built a reputation for judicial unorothodoxy bordering on heavy-handedness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
Kim Ji-myung, who founded the Korean Interpretation Institute, accuses China of heavy-handedness.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 26, 2023
None of this is lost on the creators, who find themselves wrestling with what it means to make subtle art in a world whose natural disasters increasingly have the heavy-handedness of agitprop.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2021
He appealed strongly to all that was worst in Roman taste—its heavy-handedness, its admiration of verbal cleverness, its tendency towards brutality.
From Latin Literature by J. W. (John William) Mackail
