ungainly


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Related to ungainly: divining

un·gain·ly

 (ŭn-gān′lē)
adj. un·gain·li·er, un·gain·li·est
1. Lacking grace or ease of movement or form; clumsy.
2. Difficult to move or use; unwieldy.

[un- + obsolete gainly, proper (from Middle English gainli, from gain, from Old Norse gegn, direct).]

un·gain′li·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ungainly

(ʌnˈɡeɪnlɪ)
adj, -lier or -liest
1. lacking grace when moving
2. difficult to move or use; unwieldy
3. rare crude or coarse
adv
rare clumsily
[C17: from un-1 + obsolete or dialect gainly graceful]
unˈgainliness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

un•gain•ly

(ʌnˈgeɪn li)

adj. -li•er, li•est,
adv. adj.
1. not graceful; awkward; unwieldy; clumsy.
adv.
2. in an awkward manner.
[1605–15; un-1 + obsolete gainly proper, gracious, Middle English gaynlich, derivative of geyn straight, well-disposed (< Old Norse gegn straight, direct)]
un•gain′li•ness, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.ungainly - lacking grace in movement or postureungainly - lacking grace in movement or posture; "a gawky lad with long ungainly legs"; "clumsy fingers"; "what an ungainly creature a giraffe is"; "heaved his unwieldy figure out of his chair"
awkward - lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance; "an awkward dancer"; "an awkward gesture"; "too awkward with a needle to make her own clothes"; "his clumsy fingers produced an awkward knot"
2.ungainly - difficult to handle or manage especially because of shapeungainly - difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape; "an awkward bundle to carry"; "a load of bunglesome paraphernalia"; "clumsy wooden shoes"; "the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl"
unmanageable, unwieldy - difficult to use or handle or manage because of size or weight or shape; "we set about towing the unwieldy structure into the shelter"; "almost dropped the unwieldy parcel"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

ungainly

adjective awkward, clumsy, inelegant, lumbering, slouching, gawky, uncouth, gangling, loutish, uncoordinated, ungraceful, lubberly Paul swam in his ungainly way to the side of the pool.
elegant, graceful
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ungainly

adjective
1. Lacking dexterity and grace in physical movement:
Slang: klutzy.
Idiom: all thumbs.
2. Difficult to handle or manage:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
أخْرَق، فَظ، غَيْر رَشيق
neohrabaný
klodset
klunnalegur
lempīgsneveikls

ungainly

[ʌnˈgeɪnlɪ] ADJ [person] → desgarbado; [animal] → torpe; [gait] → torpe, desgarbado
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ungainly

[ʌnˈgeɪnli] adjgauche, dégingandé(e)
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

ungainly

adj animal, movementunbeholfen; appearanceunelegant, unansehnlich, unschön; postureungraziös, unschön
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

ungainly

[ʌnˈgeɪnlɪ] adjsgraziato/a, goffo/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

ungainly

(anˈgeinli) adjective
awkward, clumsy or ungraceful. She is rather large and ungainly.
unˈgainliness noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning -- little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -- Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning--little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door-- Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as "Nevermore."
Its back was corrugated and ornamented with ungainly bosses, and a greenish incrustation blotched it here and there.
He was a man of forty, not good-looking, and yet not ugly, for his features were rather good; but they were all a little larger than life-size, and the effect was ungainly. He was clean shaven, and his large face looked uncomfortably naked.
This whale is not dead; he is only dispirited; out of sorts, perhaps; hypochondriac; and so supine, that the hinges of his jaw have relaxed, leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight, a reproach to all his tribe, who must, no doubt, imprecate lock-jaws upon him.
Then I recalled the eyes of Montgomery's ungainly attendant.
Pierre was ungainly. Stout, about the average height, broad, with huge red hands; he did not know, as the saying is, to enter a drawing room and still less how to leave one; that is, how to say something particularly agreeable before going away.
She fell to wondering what her life would have been like had she been born a Chinese woman, or an Italian woman like those she saw, head-shawled or bareheaded, squat, ungainly and swarthy, who carried great loads of driftwood on their heads up from tha beach.
And he had seen the young fawn with Bara, the deer, and with Buto, the rhinoceros, its ungainly little one.
The great numbers on their backs, as if they were street doors; their coarse mangy ungainly outer surface, as if they were lower animals; their ironed legs, apologetically garlanded with pocket-handkerchiefs; and the way in which all present looked at them and kept from them; made them (as Herbert had said) a most disagreeable and degraded spectacle.
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!
The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry--boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselves out with a long summer day's laborious frolicking under the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean in many a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history!