UNWIELDY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unwieldy mean? 

• UNWIELDY (adjective)
  The adjective UNWIELDY has 3 senses:

1. difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape

2. difficult to work or manipulate

3. lacking grace in movement or posture

  Familiarity information: UNWIELDY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNWIELDY (adjective)

Comparative: unwieldier   
Superlative: unwieldiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape

Synonyms:

unmanageable; unwieldy

Context example:

almost dropped the unwieldy parcel

Similar:

awkward; bunglesome; clumsy; ungainly (difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape)

cumbersome; cumbrous (difficult to handle or use especially because of size or weight)

Antonym:

wieldy (easy to handle or use or manage)

Derivation:

unwieldiness (trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Difficult to work or manipulate

Context example:

unwieldy rules and regulations

Similar:

impractical (not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters)

Derivation:

unwieldiness (the quality of being difficult to direct or control by reason of complexity)

Sense 3

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)

 Context examples 

But Challenger had some unwieldy stuff which he ardently desired to take with him, and one particular package, of which I may not speak, which gave us more labor than any.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding stair.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The overloaded and unwieldy sled forged ahead, Buck and his mates struggling frantically under the rain of blows.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

However, we returned to those monsters, with fresh wakefulness on my part, and we left their eggs in the sand for the sun to hatch; and we ran away from them, and baffled them by constantly turning, which they were unable to do quickly, on account of their unwieldy make; and we went into the water after them, as natives, and put sharp pieces of timber down their throats; and in short we ran the whole crocodile gauntlet.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame there was perched a head so masterful in its brow, so alert in its steel-grey, deep-set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered only the dominant mind.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Indeed!" Challenger bowed with unwieldy sarcasm.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The other held the loop of the rope which would release the catch and send the unwieldy missile hurtling through the air.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From time to time the little ones played round their parents in unwieldy gambols, the great beasts bounding into the air and falling with dull thuds upon the earth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The sports of the lists had done much in days gone by to impress the minds of the people, but the plumed and unwieldy champion was no longer an object either of fear or of reverence to men whose fathers and brothers had shot into the press at Crecy or Poitiers, and seen the proudest chivalry in the world unable to make head against the weapons of disciplined peasants.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could not have accomplished it, nor could Summerlee, if Challenger had not gained the summit (it was extraordinary to see such activity in so unwieldy a creature) and there fixed the rope round the trunk of the considerable tree which grew there.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)