heavy-handed

/'hevi'hændid/
Học thuật
Thân thiện
heavy-handed

The manager's heavy-handed approach made the team feel stifled.

Definition
  1. Adjective:
    • Using excessive force or authority; unjustly domineering or oppressive: Describes actions, policies, or behavior that are overly harsh, forceful, and lacking in subtlety or fairness.
    • Lacking physical dexterity; clumsy, especially with the hands: Describes a person who is awkward or unskillful in manual tasks.
Examples of Usage
  • Adjective (Oppressive/Forceful):
    • The company's heavy-handed management style led to low employee morale.
    • Critics accused the regime of heavy-handed censorship of the media.
  • Adjective (Clumsy):
    • His heavy-handed repair attempt only made the problem worse.
    • The heavy-handed editing ruined the delicate flow of the original text.
Advanced Usage
  • "heavy-handed approach/tactics": A method or strategy characterized by excessive force or lack of finesse.
    • The police were criticized for their heavy-handed approach to crowd control.
  • "heavy-handed metaphor/symbolism": Used in literary or artistic criticism to describe symbolism or metaphors that are overly obvious or lacking in subtlety.
    • The film's message was undermined by its heavy-handed symbolism.
Variants and Related Words
  • Heavy-handedly (adverb): In a heavy-handed manner.
    • The new rules were heavy-handedly enforced.
  • Heavy-handedness (noun): The quality of being heavy-handed.
    • The heavy-handedness of the security measures was unnecessary.
Synonyms
  • Oppressive: Exercising power in a cruel or unjust way.
  • Domineering: Asserting one's will over another in an arrogant way.
  • Clumsy: Awkward in movement or action; not graceful.
  • Ham-fisted: Informal synonym for clumsy or inept.
Related Phrases
  • Ride roughshod over: To act without consideration for the feelings or rights of others (similar to the oppressive sense of "heavy-handed").
    • The developer rode roughshod over the community's objections.
  • With a sledgehammer (to crack a nut): An idiom describing the use of disproportionate force or measures to solve a minor problem (related to the clumsy or oppressive sense).
    • Fining a child a hundred dollars for being late is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
heavy-handed

The manager's heavy-handed approach made the team feel stifled.

Adjective
  1. unjustly domineering
    • incensed at the government's heavy-handed economic policies
    • a manager who rode roughshod over all opposition
  2. lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands
    • a bumbling mechanic
    • a bungling performance
    • ham-handed governmental interference
    • could scarcely empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor creature- Mary H. Vorse

Từ đồng nghĩa

Từ tương tự