maladroit

comparative more maladroit · superlative most maladroit

1. Not adroit; awkward, clumsy, inept.First known use 1670s

   2 more examples

   Like the maladroit boy himself, the director does not believe in warming his audience up with narrative foreplay, and it's the same story when we cut to the family home of Julio's girlfriend, whose parents allow him into her bedroom to help her look for her passport, and she gleefully wrenches her tracksuit bottoms down.

   2002 April 12, Peter Bradshaw, “Three go mad in Mexico”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2016

   Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate?

   2003 March, Jonathan Rauch, “Caring for Your Introvert”, in The Atlantic Monthly, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2010

plural maladroits

1. Somebody who is inept, or lacking in skill, or talent.