Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Marked by a lack of adroitness; inept.
  • noun An inept person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not adroit or dexterous; inexpert; clumsy; awkward; unhandy; bungling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of a quality opposed to adroitness; clumsy; awkward; unskillful.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective inept; clumsy; awkward; not adroit
  • noun Somebody who is inept, or lacking in skill, or talent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not adroit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : mal-, mal- + adroit, adroit; see adroit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French maladroit, from mal- ("bad, badly") + adroit ("skilful")

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Examples

Comments

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  • ... their heads thickplotting under maladroit silk hats.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 2

    December 29, 2006