unwieldy

adjective, un·wield·i·er, un·wield·i·est.

not wieldy; wielded with difficulty; not readily handled or managed in use or action, as from size, shape, or weight; awkward; ungainly.

Also, un·wield·ly.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English unweldy. See un-¹, wieldy

Related forms

un·wield·i·ly, adverb

un·wield·i·ness, noun

Synonyms
bulky, unmanageable, clumsy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To unwieldy

Collins

World English Dictionary

unwieldy or unwieldly (ʌnˈwiːldɪ)

—*adj*
1.	too heavy, large, or awkwardly shaped to be easily handled
2.	ungainly; clumsy

unwieldly or unwieldly

—*adj*

un'wieldily or unwieldly

—*adv*

un'wieldlily or unwieldly

—*adv*

un'wieldiness or unwieldly

—n

un'wieldliness or unwieldly

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10

Unwieldy is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

unwieldy

late 14c., "lacking strength," from un- (1) "not" + O.E. wielde "active, vigorous," from P.Gmc. *walth- "have power" (see wield). Meaning "moving ungracefully" is recorded from 1530; in ref. to weapons, "difficult to handle, awkward by virtue of size or shape" it is attested from 1547.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences

Bar soap is a convenient option for the bathroom, but when a bar gets to be too

small, it becomes unwieldy and inconvenient.

Existing terahertz sources are, however, either too unwieldy or too weak to

suit all of these uses.

The authors, too, may bemoan the festival's increasingly unwieldy size.

First, enlist the aid of a partner if the ladder is unwieldy or will require

guarding while you are aloft.

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Related Words

behemoth hulk awkward bulky

bulky dead freight dinosaur

Matching Quote

"The book of Nature is the book of Fate. She turns the gigantic pages,—leaf after leaf,—never returning one. One leaf she lays down, a floor of granite; then a thousand ages, and a bed of slate; a thousand ages, and a measure of coal; a thousand ages, and a layer of marl and mud; vegetable forms appear; her first misshapen animals, zoophyte, trilobium, fish; then, saurians,—rude forms, in which she has only blocked her future statue, concealing under these unwieldy monsters the fine type of her coming king. The face of the planet cools and dries, the races meliorate, and man is born. But when a race has lived its term, it comes no more again."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

unwieldy

un·wield·y