unwieldy
pronunciation
How to pronounce unwieldy in British English:
UK [ʌnˈwi:ldi]
How to pronounce unwieldy in American English:
US [ʌnˈwildi]
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- Adjective:
- difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape
- lacking grace in movement or posture
Word Origin
- unwieldy
- unwieldy: [14] Unwieldy originally meant ‘weak, feeble’ (‘a toothless, old, impotent, and unwieldy woman’, Reginald Scot, Discovery of Witch-craft 1584). The meaning ‘awkward to handle’ developed in the 16th century. The word was based on the now seldom encountered wieldy, which evolved from Old English wielde ‘active, vigorous’. This in turn went back to the Germanic base *walth- ‘have power’, source also of English herald and wield.=> herald, wield
- unwieldy (adj.)
- late 14c., "lacking strength, powerless," from un- (1) "not" + obsolete wieldy, from Old English wielde "active, vigorous," from Proto-Germanic *walth- "have power" (see wield (v.)). Meaning "moving ungracefully" is recorded from 1520s; in reference to weapons, "difficult to handle, awkward by virtue of size or shape" it is attested from 1540s. Related: Unwieldiness.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Drift tubes , however , are unwieldy .
- 2. It looks unreformed , unwieldy and ultimately unsustainable .
- 3. One of its trickiest tasks would be handling japan 's unwieldy bureaucracy .
- 4. The results were heavy , unwieldy devices with lenses up to 30 centimeters thick .
- 5. He once lost control of an unwieldy contraption nicknamed the flying bedstead that was designed to help astronauts train for the lunar landing .