heavyhanded

Adjective

heavyhanded (comparative more heavyhanded, superlative most heavyhanded)

1. Clumsy.
   • Fuso also had a thing when holding things – at times they just fell off and broke, the reason why he prefered^([sic]) using china and glasses at the table and he never held newborn babies.[…]Fuso didn't consider himselft^([sic]) clumsy though, heavyhanded was a more acceptable word.2007, Joel Mwangi, Illegal Dreams, →ISBN, page 39
2. Excessive.
   • Jordan Bartel of the Chicago Tribune named the chapter a timeless and saw a feasible Emmy recommendation for Vincent Kartheiser, however sensed the kitchenette sink allegorism and finishing voiceover was a itty-bitty heavyhanded.2014, Doris Medina, Mad Men 252, →ISBN
3. Lacking subtlety.
   • Its ending is heavyhanded: the main character turns and addresses the audience--and it's made clear he's talking specifically to the black audience only--and tells them to "wake up.1988 April 15, Richard Wilkinson, “Critical Daze”, in Chicago Reader
   • It is ironic that the usual criticism regarded as damning Lawrence is precisely that he is heavyhanded, that he labours the point, that he is overinsistent.1992, Marta Gibińska, Zygmunt Mazur, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference: New Trends in English and American Studies (Cracow 1990 April 2-7), page 121
4. Overbearing.
   • The heavyhanded loyalty oath and affidavit requirements of the NDEA fellowships have received a great deal of publicity, but the real coercive effect of NDEA on graduate education has little to do with such know-nothing excrescences.1992, Robert Paul Wolff, The Ideal of the University, page 54
5. Using excessive force.
   • The British army, on the other hand, was recruited from the lowest rungs of English society—three British regiments in the American Revolution were composed entirely of reprieved criminals—and its heavyhanded sergeants instantly and severely disciplined insubordinates.2011, Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind