UNGAINLY (ungainlier, ungainliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: ungainlier    , ungainliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ungainly mean? 

• UNGAINLY (adjective)
  The adjective UNGAINLY has 2 senses:

1. lacking grace in movement or posture

2. difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape

  Familiarity information: UNGAINLY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNGAINLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking grace in movement or posture

Synonyms:

clumsy; clunky; gawky; ungainly; unwieldy

Context example:

heaved his unwieldy figure out of his chair

Similar:

awkward (lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance)

Derivation:

ungainliness (the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are extremely ungainly and inelegant)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape

Synonyms:

awkward; bunglesome; clumsy; ungainly

Context example:

the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl

Similar:

unmanageable; unwieldy (difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape)

 Context examples 

“At any rate,” observed Uriah, with a writhe of his ungainly person, “we may keep the door shut. We needn't make it known to ALL the town.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The animal waddled toward the centre of the circle, short and squat and ungainly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

For a moment I wondered where I could have seen that ungainly shape, that arched back with triangular fringes along it, that strange bird-like head held close to the ground.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was clad only in his long night-dress, and his swollen ankles and ungainly feet protruded starkly from beneath it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“By Saint Ives! it is true,” cried Sir Bertrand, striding across to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed engines were standing.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet, life-size, indeed, but how different from life's colour or life's comeliness!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Now, amidst roars of laughter from the crowd and a shower of blows from the beaters-out, they dived madly back, with the ungainly haste of frightened sheep blundering through a gap in their hurdles.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thank you, Miss Trotwood, said Uriah, writhing in his ungainly manner, for your good opinion!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was ridiculous and ungainly, lying there on his back with legs sprawling in the air.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)