Butterfinger

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A person who frequently drops things or handles objects clumsily due to lack of dexterity or coordination
2. A person prone to accidentally dropping or fumbling objects due to poor manual control or grip
3. Someone who tends to let things slip from their hands or mishandle items owing to careless or clumsy handling

Etymology: Butterfinger is a compound of "butter" and "finger," describing hands so slippery that anything held in them tends to slide away. The word is an old one in English, and it has long been applied to people who drop things as a matter of habit rather than by accident. The adjective here is a clipping of "butterfingers," the plural noun form that the compound usually takes. Clipping shortens a longer word to its core, so the adjective keeps the sense of the noun while dropping the final "s," which is why it can be used to describe a person directly: someone who is a butterfinger is someone whose hands seem to lack a secure grip.

Synonyms: clumsy, awkward, uncoordinated, fumble-fingered, slipshod