cack-handed
/kakˈhandɪd
/adjective British informal
1Inept; clumsy: a great song ruined by cack-handed production...
- It is difficult to conceive a more cack-handed, clumsy way of running a regional fund programme, even assuming there was a case on enhanced economic performance grounds for doing so.
- He said: ‘I can only describe it as an amateurish, cack-handed attempt at health promotion by some staggeringly inept students.’
- Yesterday, though, there were no such difficulties as the belly putter he adopted just a few weeks back, and the cack-handed grip with which he has been experimenting these past few days, combined to take him out in 32 and back in 30.
2 derogatory Left-handed.
Derivatives
cack-handedly
- So I put forward these ideas however subtly or cack-handedly to the extent that I can get away with it.
- There was also a case for the re-organisation of regiments, however cack-handedly the Government went about it.
- A few years ago I cack-handedly attempted a relationship with a man who was very good at anecdotes.
cack-handedness
- But the furore over the fate of Scotland and Wales was merely the shining example of a remarkable display of cack-handedness performed by a faltering government machine over a full 48 hours.
- The basic idea and story structure are fine, but they're executed with such cack-handedness and lack of subtlety that it's simply impossible to care.
- Pardon me if I show off a little, but this was something of an accomplishment for me, given my general cack-handedness when it comes to technology.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from cack, in the sense 'excrement', + hand + -ed2.