Heavy-handed

adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Clumsy; awkward. derogatory

    "Some people say, 'I can't make pastry, I'm too heavy-handed.'"

  2. 2
    Excessive; overdone.

    "Do not be too heavy-handed with the salt."

  3. 3
    Lacking subtlety or nuance. derogatory

    "...punk “music has been, and still is, one of the most heavy-handed genres of music there is. Unfortunately the topics of such heavy-handed songs are almost always seeped in left wing propaganda, bumper sticker rallying calls and oversimplifications of otherwise complex topics.""

  4. 4
    Overbearing, coercive; unnecessarily forceful; harsh, oppressive. derogatory

    "“Heavy-handed, huh? Is that by any chance your way of telling me that I'm a bad communicator?" "No, it's my way of telling you that you obviously haven't shaken the take-charge attitude.""

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands wordnet
  2. 2
    unjustly domineering wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
;ham-fistedham-handedall thumbsauthoritarianautocratic

Example

More examples

"The government's response to the protests was considered a bit heavy-handed."

Etymology

From heavy + hand + -ed, literally “having a heavy hand”. Compare Middle English hevitime, heviteme (“burdensome, grievous, grave”), from Old English hefiġtīme, hefiġtȳme (“grievous, wearisome, tedious, troublesome”).

Related phrases

heavy-handedlyheavy-handedness

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.