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Definition
lacking grace in movement or appearance; or difficult to handle or manage — especially because of shape- The ungainly, tilt-rotor aircraft is shockingly expensive.
ungainly = lacking grace in movement or appearance
- The cello, a rather ungainly instrument.
- She had just had a growth spurt and still looked a bit clumsy and ungainly.
- It's ungainly compared to the other birds, but it can fly.
- Baby giraffes look so ungainly.
- On the mountain-top the parachute filled and moved; the figure slid, rose to its feet, spun, swayed down through a vastness of wet air and trod with ungainly feet the tops of the high trees; falling, still falling, it sank toward the beach and the boys rushed screaming into the darkness.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- Ralph remembered the ungainly figure on a parachute.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- He was ungainly and twisted.David Almond -- Clay
- Two years later, she moved to another one-a secure, if ungainly, building in an apartment complex in Southeast, about two miles northeast of Ballou.Ron Suskind -- A Hope in the Unseen
- A look of shock and surprise-the hunter hunted-my husband lifted off his feet in an ungainly and weightless manner.Stephen King -- Rose Red
- Even in the curtained gloom the ungainly bulk beside me was unmistakable.Corrie ten Boom -- The Hiding Place
- I'm just something very ungainly that you'vemarried.Ernest Hemingway -- A Farewell to Arms
- Its back was corrugated and ornamented with ungainly bosses, and a greenish incrustation blotched it here and there.H.G. Wells -- The Time Machine
- I had slid down the seat and slept the night through in an ungainly position.Maya Angelou -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- At that she flung her head high, spun on her ungainly legs and gallumphed back down the ridge apparently more indignant than afraid.Farley Mowat -- Never Cry Wolf
- Her legs were as big around as the stumps of trees, and she moved with an ungainly shuffle.Ray Bradbury -- The Martian Chronicles
- I know I am wild, and uncouth, and ungainly—James Fenimore Cooper -- The Pathfinder
- He was lank and ungainly but, even with his wooden peg, he moved as swiftly as a snake.Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
- How surprised must the fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another sphere speeding his way amid their schools!Henry David Thoreau -- Walden
- 'At any rate,' observed Uriah, with a writhe of his ungainly person, 'we may keep the door shut.Charles Dickens -- David Copperfield
ungainly = difficult to handle or manage
ungainly = lacking grace in movement or appearance
ungainly = lacking grace in movement
ungainly = lacking grace in movement or appearance
ungainly = awkward (not graceful)
ungainly = awkwardly moving (not graceful)