Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Chiefly British Left-handed.
- adj. Chiefly British Awkward; clumsy.
Wiktionary
- adj. clumsy
- adj. left-handed
- adj. back-handed
Etymologies
- cack (“excrement”) + handed. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps from Old Norse keikr, bent backwards; akin to Danish keite, left-handed. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But in the case of the many celebrities who have been so vociferous in their condemnation of this ultimately cack-handed and not even especially successful from a story point-of-view practice, are we quite so sympathetic?”
The Huffington Post: Christopher Beanland: How it Feels to Have Your Phone Hacked
“He's also ed-in-chief of near-future sf webzine Futurismic, a learning fictioneer and poet, a reviewer of books, music and concerts, a cack-handed third guitarist for a fuzz-rock band, and in need of a proper haircut.”
“Then, unshakable in the belief that his rule was buttressed by a legitimacy not enjoyed by other authoritarian leaders journalists regularly come away from meeting him saying he is like no other regional leader, Bashar was initially unwilling to order the same level of force to be deployed against protestors as his father was, instead sending mixed messages of restraint to Syrian security forces whose cack-handed efforts only served to accelerate events.”
The Huffington Post: James Denselow: Assad: The Man Who Can Bring Down the Syrian Regime
“But it's more than just his cack-handed stewardship of RBS.”
“Although we will know the top-line result – Romney's expected victory – very quickly, the final details of percentages and second places will take a little longer.5.34pm: After Mitt Romney avoided answering questions from journalists for more than a week, nothing spells "press conference now!" than the need to explain some cack-handed remarks about pink slips and the joy of firing.”
The Guardian: New Hampshire primary - live: Mitt Romney fends off attacks
“Hindered, as he must feel, by Fergie and her cack-handed attempts to assist.”
“I will never forgive Blair and Brown for being so cack-handed, that the mostly sensible British electorate found Camoron a better choice than Labour...”
The Guardian: 'New politics' claim a sham, senior Conservative MP warns David Cameron
“Some people will always be offended by something, and there will always be some cack-handed idiot willing to “embrace” their point of view.”
Make the lie big, make it simple and keep saying it. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“In fact some achieve greatness while also being cack-handed and cacophonous.”
“A more cack-handed effort you would struggle to find anywhere.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cack-handed’.
-
Kingly epithets
Take one of CharlesFerdinand's excellent Merovingians or Goths, add a "the" and one of these descriptors, and presto, a character for your long-planned spoof fantasy novel.
unlikely, chuckleheaded, aloof, lacklustre, slow, murky, neurotic, clichéd, pediculous, dour, bungling, dandy and 23 more...
-
[Open] Sinister Ascriptions
These words either descend from a word or root referring to the left side or direction (e.g., “sinister”) or refer to the concept themselves. Many, but not all, have negative connotations.
sinister, sinistral, gauche, bend sinister, bar sinister, sinister-handed, sinisterly, oculus sinister, ambisinister, sinister base, sinister aspect, ramus sinister and 43 more...
-
ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
-
samoritan's Words
moxie, zarf, crepuscular, serenity, halcyon, powerfuller, instant classic, abecedary, trilobite, doomsters, 'da bome, evanescence and 149 more...
-
Words I Love But Don't Use Enough
Thanks to all you Wordies out there flinging new words at my head. This one's for you.
phascolomian, flammulated, pelagic, avuncular, spondulicks, frippery, wyvern, stramash, cack-handed, bellicosity, infrared reflecto..., contumeliously and 106 more...
-
List 1
Random Collection
katzenjammer, dysthymia, piffle, bumbershoot, crufty, sotto voce, gambol, inkstone, hotted up, knock-kneed, beggar belief, guff and 2 more...
-
tyke chelp
Yorkshire dialect words.
Tyke is a Yorkshire person.
Chelpin' is talking.scarborough warning, tyke, chelp, chelpin', 'appen, bagsey, bazzerking, croggy, dursn't, eeh by gum, flaysome, goffs and 26 more...
-
Distinctly British
Mostly but not limited to slang and some cockney guffy wibble
haberdashery, coventry, knackered, cack-handed, bate, bimble, blag, boffin, bonce, brolly, busk, cack and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cack-handed.
chained_bear Reesetee! Shame! That's not a list making fun of you. It's merely recording for wordieternity the things that are said about you. Or, you know, near you.
By the way... you aren't cack-handed, are you? ;) Aug 30, 2008
reesetee Oh, don't worry, c_b--I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly didn't take it that way. It is an odd-sounding word. Besides, I'm sure you could think of something better to make fun of me for. I mean, you have a whole list already. :-> Aug 29, 2008
plethora Feels good. Aug 29, 2008
chained_bear Just to clarify, I never liked the term to mock left-handers, or used it that way. I remember, when I was a kid, people (siblings) making fun of left-handers, and thinking, "That's stupid." In the sense of "can't you think of anything better to make fun of them for?"
Edit: And I certainly never meant to call anyone shit-handed! *hork* Aug 29, 2008
reesetee Vindication at last. Where's plethora? ;-) Aug 29, 2008
chained_bear Oh dear. I went and looked cack up in the OED. Please see this list, the word cack, and all left-handed people please accept my apologies for this word that I found charmingly archaic until I looked at where it came from. *hangs head*
On a positive note, the usages for the term cack-handed don't mention excrement:
Left-handed; ham-handed, clumsy, awkward. Hence cack-handedness.
1854 A. E. BAKER Gloss. Northants. I. 365 Keck-handed, awkward, left-handed. 1859 N. & Q. VIII. 483 If a man, at hay time or harvest, holds his fork with his left hand lowest, they say, ‘Ah! he's no good! he's keck-handed!...’ 1893 DARTNELL & GODDARD Gloss. Wiltshire 21 Cack-handed, cag-handed. 1955 M. ALLINGHAM Beckoning Lady vi. 91, I never met such a kack-handed jackass in all my born days. 1959 P. MCCUTCHAN Storm South iv. 52 He would... moan about the cack-handedness of Bacon (which was nonsense, for Bacon was a first-rate steward). 1961 Spectator 22 Sept. 384 An insanely slothful or cack-handed publican. 1964 S. JEPSON Fear in Wind i. 17 A series of kack-handed manuvres... designed to keep one end of a stick on the ground. 1967 J. POTTER Foul Play x. 125 When he saw the ball going the wrong side of him, he lunged his hockey stick out behind him... ‘Just thought I'd try a bit of your cack-handed stuff.’ Aug 29, 2008
yarb I like this term, too. But what's the etymology of the cack part? Aug 29, 2008
chained_bear Left-handed; ham-handed, clumsy, awkward.
Favorite usage: "I never met such a cack-handed jackass in all my born days." 1955 M. ALLINGHAM Beckoning Lady vi. 91 Feb 1, 2007