hamburg
n. countablen. a person who is not very good at a sport or a specific skill. It is a casual way to describe someone who looks clumsy or makes mistakes while playing.
n. an unskilled or incompetent performer, particularly in a sporting context. Informal in register; often carries a mildly derogatory or dismissive connotation regarding the subject's lack of coordination.
He is such a hamburg on the tennis court.
The coach benched him after he played like a total hamburg during the first half of the game.
While he possessed great enthusiasm for the local league, his reputation as a bit of a hamburg kept him from being selected for the more competitive regional tournaments.
From German Hamburg.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 3, 2026