What does butterfingers mean?
Butterfingers is an informal noun for a person who is clumsy and frequently drops, fumbles, or mishandles things. It can also describe someone who makes careless mistakes or performs a task with obvious ineptitude, extending the word’s focus on physical clumsiness to general incompetence. The expression is usually playful, teasing, or mildly critical rather than a formal judgment. It is especially common in speech and informal writing, and the unchanged plural form is standard: “one butterfingers” can refer to an individual, while “two butterfingers” refers to two people. Butterfingers is memorable because it turns the image of soft, slippery fingers into a vivid label for someone who cannot keep hold of things. Its straightforward compound structure also makes its meaning easy to infer, even when it is used metaphorically for a clumsy performance rather than a dropped object.
nounAn informal term for a person who is clumsy and prone to dropping, fumbling, or mishandling things. It can also refer more broadly to someone who makes careless mistakes or handles a task ineptly.
- A person who is clumsy, especially one who frequently drops or fumbles objects.
"I dropped the phone twice while I was on the call—a bit of a butterfingers, really."
"The butterfingers knocked over the stack of plates."
"As a bit of a butterfingers, he let the ball bounce twice before grabbing it."
The plural is normally unchanged. The singular construction “a butterfingers” is informal but established in everyday use.
"The butterfingers dropped the plates while trying to stack them."
A butterfingers turns a simple slip of the fingers into a name for anyone who keeps dropping the ball.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does butterfingers come from?
The word developed from the compound butter and finger, evoking fingers that are greasy or slippery and therefore unable to hold things securely. The expression was used in the early twentieth century for a person who fumbles or drops objects, and the familiar form butterfingers became established in modern English. The related singular butterfinger has also been used for a clumsy person.
Related word forms
How butterfingers is actually used
This is an informal, mildly teasing or humorous label. It is more often playful than severely critical, though it can imply carelessness or ineptitude.