unwieldy
- 01 C1 Advanced
describes a system or group that is too large or complicated to work well.
difficult to manage or operate efficiently due to excessive size or complexity; often applied to organisations or legal systems.
Simple“The company became too unwieldy after buying ten smaller businesses in one year.”
In context“Critics argued that the new legislation was far too unwieldy to be enforced effectively by such a small department.”
SynonymsAntonyms
“Their house was rarely cleaned, with toys strewn on the floor, dirty dishes stacked up in the kitchen, laundry mingling in unwieldy piles.”
From Middle English unweldy, equivalent to un- + wieldy. Cognate with Old Frisian unweldich, unweldech (“having no power, involuntary”), Middle Dutch onweldich (“having no control or mastery over”), Middle Low German unweldich (“unwieldy”). Compare also Old High German unwaltīg (“powerless”), whence Middle High German unwaltic, German ungewaltig (“powerless, unmighty”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.