butterfingered

comparative more butterfingered · superlative most butterfingered · alternative butter-fingered

1. Prone to dropping things; clumsy.

   [I]t is always a matter of annoyance to the whole field when one of the party fails in a fair catch, or performs it in a bungling or "butter[-]fingered" style.

   1861, [Nicholas Felix [pseudonym; Nicholas Wanostrocht]], “Rudimentary Lessons on the Use of the Cricket-bat”, in The Cricket-bat; and How to Use It: A Treatise on the Game of Cricket. […], London: Baily Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 32

   5 more examples

   [S]hee [a housewife] muſt be cleanly both in body and garments, ſhe muſt haue a quicke eye, a curious noſe, a perfect taſte and a ready care (ſhe muſt not be butter fingered, ſweet-toothed, nor faint hearted); for, the firſt will let euery thing fall, the ſecond will conſume what it ſhould increaſe, and the laſt will looſe time with too much niceneſſe.

   1615, G[ervase] M[arkham], “[The English Hus-wife.] Of the Outward and Actiue Knowledges of the Hous-wife; and First of Her Skill in Cookery.”, in Countrey Contentments, in Two Bookes: The First, Containing the Whole Art of Riding Great Horses in Very Short Time, […] The Second Intituled, The English Huswife: […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for R[oger] Iackson, […], →OCLC, page 39

   There are few who are ignorant of the circumstance which occurred at the execution of [Arthur] Thistlewood and his fellow conspirators for treason. A thrill of horror ran through the crowd when the first head was severed from its body, but so rapidly did the spectators become accustomed to the sight that on the executioner accidentally letting the third head drop, there was a shout of 'Ah! butter[-]fingered!'

   1858 January, “Art. VI.—An Essay on the Beneficent Distribution of the Sense of Pain. By G. A. Rowell, […] Oxford, 1857.”, in The London Quarterly Review, American edition, volume XLIX, number I (London edition, volume CIII, number CCV), New York, N.Y.: Published by Leonard Scott & Co., […], →OCLC, page 115, column 2

   Youd better go and slam that bag, too, down on Miss Raina's ice pudding! [This is too much for Nicola. The bag drops from his hand.] Begone, you butter[-]fingered donkey.

   1894, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Arms and the Man”, in Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, 2nd volume (Containing the Four Pleasant Plays), London: Grant Richards, […], published 1898, →OCLC, Act II, page 45

   Of course, one requires to be a little gifted that way and not to be butter-fingered, but what is chiefly necessary is patience and daily practice for long, long years.

   1903, Guy de Maupassant, “The Artist”, in The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant: Ten Volumes in One, volume I, New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son Corporation, →OCLC, page 164, column 1

   When a Land Dyak village has turned out for a wild-pig hunt in the jungle, those who remain at home may not touch water or oil with their hands during the absence of their friends, lest the hunters should all become ‘butter-fingered,’ and the prey so escape them[…].

   1906, Alfred C[ort] Haddon, “Sympathetic Magic”, in Magic and Fetishism (Religions, Ancient and Modern), London: Archibald Constable & Co Ltd […], →OCLC, pages 11–12

   Synonyms: ambilevous, ambisinistrous