butterfingered
but·ter·fin·gered
adjective
1.
not skillful in physical movement especially with the hands
- “a bumbling mechanic”
- “a bungling performance”
- “ham-handed governmental interference”
- “could scarcely empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor creature” Mary H. Vorse
Origin
From butter + fingered (“having fingers (of the specified kind)”), an allusion to people tending to drop things because their hands are so slippery that they seem to be covered in butter.
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.