What does butterfingered mean?
"Butterfingered" is an informal adjective used to describe someone who is clumsy with their hands — someone who habitually drops, fumbles, or fails to grip what they are holding. The image behind the word is vivid and self-explanatory: it suggests fingers so slick with butter that nothing can be held securely. The term appears most often in everyday speech and light writing rather than formal prose, lending a gently comic tone to descriptions of dropped keys, spilled drinks, or fumbled catches. It functions both attributively, as in "a butterfingered attempt," and predicatively, as in "he was butterfingered all afternoon." A closely related form, the noun "butterfingers," names the clumsy person themselves and predates the adjective. Because it conveys a specific, physical kind of clumsiness — rather than general awkwardness — the word remains a colorful and precise choice for describing mishaps of the hands.
adjectiveTending to drop or fumble things; clumsy with the hands.
- Clumsy with the hands; apt to let things slip or fall from one's grasp.
"His butterfingered attempts to juggle the eggs ended in a sticky mess on the kitchen floor."
"The goalkeeper's butterfingered handling of an easy shot cost the team the match."
"Wearing oven mitts made her feel hopelessly butterfingered as she tried to thread a needle."
Long before the candy bar existed, English speakers were calling clumsy people 'butterfingered' — as if their fingers were too slick with butter to hold onto anything.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of butterfingered
The word derives from the noun "butterfingers," which appeared in English by the early seventeenth century to describe someone who lets things slip through their hands, evoking butter-slicked fingers. The adjective "butterfingered" was formed directly from this compound by adding the adjectival suffix "-ed," following a productive pattern in English. Both forms share the Germanic root of "butter," which entered Old English from Latin "butyrum," ultimately borrowed from Greek "boutyron."
Related word forms
How butterfingered is actually used
Informal and slightly humorous in register; typically used attributively before a noun or predicatively about a person's handling of objects.
Easily confused with butterfingered
Butterfingers is a noun referring to a person who drops things (or a candy brand), while butterfingered is the adjective describing that person's clumsiness.