Adjacent Words

Heavy-handed definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HEAV'Y-HANDED, a. Clumsy; not active or dexterous.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands; "a bumbling mechanic"; "a bungling performance"; "ham-handed governmental interference"; "could scarcely empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor creature"- Mary H. Vorse [syn: bumbling, bungling, butterfingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, left-handed]
2: unjustly domineering; "incensed at the government's heavy- handed economic policies"; "a manager who rode roughshod over all opposition" [syn: heavy-handed, roughshod]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1647 1. clumsy 2. oppressive, harsh • heavy-handedly adverb • heavy-handedness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 clumsy. 2 overbearing, oppressive. Derivatives: heavy-handedly adv. heavy-handedness n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that someone's behaviour is heavy-handed, you mean that they are too forceful or too rough. ...heavy-handed police tactics... ADJ [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

autocratic, awkward, bungling, clumsy, despotic, dictatorial, domineering, graceless, harsh, imperious, inept, magisterial, maladroit, oppressive, overbearing, severe, tyrannical, ungraceful