Adjacent Words

Unwieldy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

UNWIE'LDY, a. That is moved with difficulty; unmanageable; bulky; ponderous; as an unwieldy bulk; an unwieldy rock.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape; "we set about towing the unwieldy structure into the shelter"; "almost dropped the unwieldy parcel" [syn: unwieldy, unmanageable] [ant: wieldy]
2: difficult to work or manipulate; "unwieldy rules and regulations"
3: lacking grace in movement or posture; "a gawky lad with long ungainly legs"; "clumsy fingers"; "what an ungainly creature a giraffe is"; "heaved his unwieldy figure out of his chair" [syn: gawky, clumsy, clunky, ungainly, unwieldy]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1530 not easily managed, handled, or used (as because of bulk, weight, complexity, or awkwardness) ; cumbersome • unwieldily adverb • unwieldiness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (unwieldier, unwieldiest) cumbersome, clumsy, or hard to manage, owing to size, shape, or weight. Derivatives: unwieldily adv. unwieldiness n. Etymology: ME f. UN-(1) + wieldy active (now dial.) f. WIELD

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Unwieldy Un*wield"y, a. Not easily wielded or carried; unmanageable; bulky; ponderous. ``A fat, unwieldy body of fifty-eight years old.'' --Clarendon. -- Un*wield"i*ly, adv. -- Un*wield"i*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe an object as unwieldy, you mean that it is difficult to move or carry because it is so big or heavy. They came panting up to his door with their unwieldy baggage. = awkward ADJ 2. If you describe a system as unwieldy, you mean that it does not work very well as a result of it being too large or badly organized. His firm must contend with the unwieldy Russian bureaucracy. ...an unwieldy legal system. = cumbersome ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Unmanageable (from size or weight), ponderous, bulky, weighty, heavy, clumsy, large.

Moby Thesaurus

Latinate, all thumbs, awkward, blunderheaded, blundering, bombastic, boorish, bulky, bumbling, bungling, burdensome, butterfingered, careless, clownish, clumsy, clumsy-fisted, contrary, cramped, crosswise, cumbersome, cumbrous, discommodious, elephantine, encumbering, fingers all thumbs, forced, formal, fumbling, gauche, gawkish, gawky, graceless, guinde, halting, ham-fisted, ham-handed, heavy, heavy-handed, hulking, hulky, impractical, incommodious, inconvenient, incumbent, inelegant, inkhorn, labored, leaden, left-hand, left-handed, loutish, lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, lumpy, maladroit, massive, massy, oafish, onerous, oppressive, oversized, perverse, pompous, ponderous, sesquipedalian, sloppy, stiff, stilted, superincumbent, troublesome, turgid, uncontrollable, uncouth, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandy, unmanageable