Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Difficult to carry or manage because of size, shape, weight, or complexity: an unwieldy parcel; an unwieldy bureaucracy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Movable or moving with difficulty; unmanageable from size, shape, or weight; lacking pliability: as, an unwieldy hulk; an unwieldy rock.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete lacking strength; weak
- adj. obsolete ungraceful in movement
- adj. difficult to carry, handle, manage or operate because of its size, weight, shape or complexity
- adj. badly managed or operated
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not easily wielded or carried; unmanageable; bulky; ponderous.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. difficult to work or manipulate
- adj. difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape
- adj. lacking grace in movement or posture
Etymologies
- From Middle English unweldi, equivalent to un- + wieldy. Cognate with Middle Low German unweldich ("unwieldy"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“(Compare that with the approach of the Federal Communications Commission, which allows only limited searching of filings and comments; or that of the Department of Justice, which puts out data on foreign lobbying in unwieldy PDF format and binders.)”
“I saw one day a herd of a dozen bullocks and cows running about and frisking in unwieldy sport, like huge rats, even like kittens.”
“The title is unwieldy, but the book—set in present-day Guyana—is a deft synthesis of travelogue and Bildungsroman, by turns antic and introspective.”
The Wall Street Journal: Cheeshahteaumauk, Class of '65 (1665)
“Fans of the original surely recall the unwieldy and annoying mini-game that was more enjoyable if you had auto-hack tools or just bought them out with Ryanbucks.”
“Then came the idea of the ‘post-bureaucratic age’ — in itself the kind of unwieldy phrase you might expect a bureaucrat to use.”
John Rentoul today puts Trevor Kavanagh and myself in the...
“Eugenie Allen says Leslie "doesn't do this loaded issue justice, '' because she" uses a battering ram '' to make her points, and so The Feminine Mistake is "unwieldy" and "polarizing.”
“There is something thoroughly modernist about Burtynsky's work, the grand scale, the glorious detail, a kind of unwieldy whole.”
“The piece arrived in early December as an "unwieldy" first draft, Mr. Marzorati said: roughly 13,000 words.”
“He saw the 'unwieldy' Privileges Committee and its party divisions as part of the problem, not the answer.”
“The back story is unwieldy, that is true – and although I am not a huge fan of flashbacks, they are the best way I’ve found to deal with her history.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘unwieldy’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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Un-word List
untrammelled, untoward, unenthusiastically, unenthusiastic, undaunted, uncanny, unceasing, unbridled, unacknowledged, unacquainted, unadorned, unaffected and 239 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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Vet4peace's list
Dental Dam
unwieldy, tasteless, odorless, obstruction, rottweiler, prime rib, rump roast
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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New words, not to be confused with th...
maladroit, aphasia, delphinium, bromide, greenhorn, just deserts, loth, supplanted, steeplechase, steeple, annex, vestments and 236 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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miscellany
preposterous, minimalism, outnumbered, subroutine, malinger, oddity, eccentricity, laughable, oxymoronic, interstellar, winter, heedless and 335 more...
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MY GRE WORDS
subterfuge, conspicuous, reflectible, necromancer, devious, implement, painstaking, depose, broach, loath, luxuriate, fractious and 34 more...
Tweets
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