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CLUMSY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: clumsier , clumsiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not elegant or graceful in expression
Example:
if the rumor is true, can anything be more inept than to repeat it now?
Synonyms:
awkward; clumsy; cumbersome; ill-chosen; inapt; inept
Classified under:
Similar:
infelicitous (not appropriate in application; defective)
Derivation:
clumsiness (the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking grace in movement or posture
Example:
heaved his unwieldy figure out of his chair
Synonyms:
clumsy; clunky; gawky; ungainly; unwieldy
Classified under:
Similar:
awkward (lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance)
Derivation:
clumsiness (the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Showing lack of skill or aptitude
Example:
his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf
Synonyms:
bungling; clumsy; fumbling; incompetent
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unskilled (not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency)
Derivation:
clumsiness (unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape
Example:
the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl
Synonyms:
awkward; bunglesome; clumsy; ungainly
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unmanageable; unwieldy (difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape)
Context examples:
I was right, and Laurie has found the beautiful, accomplished girl who will become his home better than clumsy old Jo, and be a pride, not a torment to him.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I brushed away the tears that my utmost resolution had not been able to keep back, and I made a clumsy laugh of it, and we sat down together, side by side.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
How do I know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me, not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now, at sight of this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I had my first attack of tears.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper, in the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider, yet in the common actions and behaviour of life, I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed in their conceptions upon all other subjects, except those of mathematics and music.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It was true the serial was twenty-one thousand words, and they offered to pay him sixteen dollars on publication, which was something like seventy-five cents a thousand words; but it was equally true that it was the second thing he had attempted to write and that he was himself thoroughly aware of its clumsy worthlessness.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Mrs Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely personal might have been.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
You dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you clumsy creatures!
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“It is clumsy, but it will serve the purpose, and that is the main thing,” I went on, yearning for her praise.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
As she left them the milkmaid cast many reproachful glances over her shoulder at the clumsy strangers, holding her nicked elbow close to her side.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
