ham-fisted

Related to ham-fisted: ham it up

ham-fisted

1. Uncoordinated or clumsy with one's hands. My mother does beautiful calligraphy, but I'm so ham-fisted that I can barely hold the pen. No, I'm too ham-fisted to repair that delicate figurine.
2. Inept in one's personal interactions. Tommy is so ham-fisted that he'll never be able to mediate this situation.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • be at a disadvantage
  • at a disadvantage
  • address (one's) comments to (someone or something)
  • address comments or remarks to
  • address (one's) remarks to (someone or something)
  • be in it for
  • be more than (something)
  • be more than glad, ready, etc.
  • away from it all
  • be out of (one's) head
References in periodicals archive
He added: "This has been a ham-fisted, cack-handed way to go about things and all it's done is get everybody's backs up.
Recorder James Sampson told long-time drug addict Simpson, 21, of Simpson, of Wordsworth Road, The Scotlands, Wolverhampton, that it was a "ham-fisted" offence.
ROBERT BEN GARANT serves up more punch-lines that fail to hit their target with this ham-fisted yarn, an underdog story set in the high-velocity world of competitive ping-pong (yes, really) with Christopher Walken as the camp villain.
Although the plays include "some tortuous plots, obscure dialogue, and ham-fisted love scenes," they played a significant strategic role in the political evolution of Ireland at the time.
I know she's good, but she's not that good and could only have done so courtesy of some ham-fisted mixing by BBC engineers who believe we prefer to hear her rather than the fans.
Roundly condemned for its ham-fisted handling of the foot and mouth crisis, Defra has managed to underspend its budget by pounds 747 million in the five years since it was formed.
But then, if your real legacy is endless hours of ham-fisted soap, the difficulty is obvious
They saw the Religious Right's ham-fisted involvement in the case, and it shocked them.
A ham-fisted thief who caused over pounds 2,800 of damage when he tried to break into a house three times, is being hunted by police.
"The dazzling hypocrisy of Bush's take on states' rights is only outdone by this ham-fisted capitulation to the freaky far right.
Nixon wanted dirt on Ellsberg, so his men dispatched a ham-fisted outfit to Los Angeles to see what Fielding had.
I found Saar's work to be ham-fisted; learning that it was meant above all to be satirical doesn't change my reaction--unless, of course, Saar is satirizing bad satirical art, in which case I would have to radically reassess my position.
The British government's rather ham-fisted attempt to suppress a list of its special intelligence service (SIS) officers has seen the list propagated widely over the web.
A NEW York policeman has the job of hunting down an Iraqi demon in this ham-fisted horror.
"This gothic dud wants to play on the real and metaphoric anxieties of post-adolescents discovering who they are, but the ham-fisted script is incapable of a multi-layered approach, while the helming and editing are at the level of mediocre TV," it added.