indextrous

English

Alternative forms

• indexterous

Etymology

From in- +‎ dextrous.

Adjective

indextrous (comparative more indextrous, superlative most indextrous)

1. Not dextrous; maladroit.
   • 1998, Shannon Ravenel, Padgett Powell, New Stories from the South, page viii:

     He may think Memaw's consistent failure to strike him with the broom is a function of her indextrous skill with the broom used in this uncustomary manner.

   • 2008, Adam Davies, Mine All Mine:

     Charlie's inveterate clumsiness extends to indextrous misapplications of perfume, especially new ones whose atomizers she hasn't mastered.

   • 2010, David Farrell Krell, David Wood, Exceedingly Nietzsche, page 66:

     In their handshake we feel no understanding; we feel an indextrous hand that is not held to the equipment of our culture.

   • 2018, Yuliya Komska, Michelle Moyd, David Gramling, Linguistic Disobedience: Restoring Power to Civic Language, page 7:

     Preoccupied in this moment with looking foolish or indextrous in public, Trump displays a deep sensitivity for decorum and order—the semblance of which allows him, in turn, to “grab 'em by the pussy.”

2. Not manual.
   • 1913, Alden Sampson, Studies in Milton and Essay on Poetry, page 57:

     No one better than he knew that an indextrous education is but half an education ; unless the hand have its delight as well as the brain, man expresses himself only in part.