How To Use Ungainly In A Sentence

That most people walk in an ungraceful, ungainly and awkward manner with a forward inclination of the body does not mean that it is the normal way of walking.
Billings was a clumsy, maladroit man, his fingers astonishingly competent with a wireless set, his other limbs ungainly and shambling. IN LOVE AND WAR
The gangling forward may appear ungainly but he finished his run into the area to latch on to a through ball with a neat stab past him.
But their lack of harmoniousness yields an ungainly charm, familiar and easy to settle into.
He sat back in the open coach, "hunched" together in an ungainly heap, looking neither to the right nor the left, evincing no consciousness of the existence of the shouting throngs that lined the pavements ten deep, other than by raising, with the lifeless precision of a mechanical toy, the cocked hat he wore as part of the uniform of a British colonel. Marion Harland's autobiography : the story of a long life,

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How could a player who looked so ungainly have scored quite so many goals? Times, Sunday Times
Seeing how terribly the trip strained the ungainly mother, Indira was amazed at her stoic determination to continue.
But if you spend most of your mobile life writing texts or making calls, you'll probably find these touchscreen divas rather ungainly and overpriced. Times, Sunday Times
Ungainly, provokable, I batted at the wisecracks and taunts of my peers as at a swarm of wasps. LIGHT FINGERS
That most people walk in an ungraceful, ungainly and awkward manner with a forward inclination of the body does not mean that it is the normal way of walking.
Simone: Dania "doesn't love" it; Nigel calls it "ungainly" and lacking sensuality; Tyra thinks she could be stronger All - Digital Spy - Entertainment and Media News
If the experts can't figure it out, imagine how the average policyholder feels about "demutualization" -- an ungainly name for the change that's about to reshape the familiar world of life insurance. A Deal They Can't Refuse?
Ungainly but smooth, this theme gives the audience something to whistle on the way home.
She, has an ungainly walk for a child whose support payments specify weekly ballet lessons.
All because of a performance in a play widely regarded as impossibly ungainly. Times, Sunday Times
In the midst is a well where women in flowing drapery, with tall jars, draw water as if posing for Bible illustrations; and a camel market in which fifty or more of the brown, ungainly beasts have been relieved of their burdens and lain down for the night – doubled into uncomfortable heaps and bubbling and moaning with querulous discontent. In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World
Nice. If the dog needed a wee in the night I'd have to go with him, as the dog was impossibly large and ungainly, and the door was impossibly high off the ground.
Measuring ten metres in girth, weighing 23 tons and knocking on a bit at about 800 years old, the tree is an impressive - if ungainly - sight.
the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl
Billings was a clumsy, maladroit man, his fingers astonishingly competent with a wireless set, his other limbs ungainly and shambling. IN LOVE AND WAR
He could look ungainly, whereas now he is a big and fit bloke. Times, Sunday Times
The high ceilings and unbroken expanses of wall in such a house can make the rooms seem awkward and ungainly.
Known for his wizardly approach to seafood, Mr. Lazarou is one of the first chefs to use less expensive fish like the lanky monkfish and the long, ungainly garfish to make a wealth of gourmet dishes such as monkfish with mastiha liquor cream from the Aegean island of Hios and braised garfish with fava bean mousse. Not Your Typical Greek Salad
Holmes's ticket did have a red circle and he stood in an ungainly stance that was in keeping with his disguise.
She was born rather large and ungainly and her parents found her a nuisance. Times, Sunday Times
He could look ungainly, whereas now he is a big and fit bloke. Times, Sunday Times
As the ungainly child of an unlucky shoemaker and an illiterate washerwoman in the Danish city of Odense, he dreamed of being a famous actor and made up little plays about princes and princesses.
It is just a bit ungainly and a bit pointless. The Sun
The winged males and females have a very ungainly flight that does not take them very far.
Finding that they did, he tried a few ungainly steps toward the door.
But instead she goes for the cheaper, more seductive, thrill of suggesting that ungainly, weak female bodies are the most attractive to men, that teenage gawkiness could be made into an appealing vulnerability that brings all the supernatural boys to the yard. Sarah Seltzer: "Twilight": Sexual Longing in an Abstinence-Only World
She, has an ungainly walk for a child whose support payments specify weekly ballet lessons.
These are heavy, clumsy, ungainly things. Times, Sunday Times
It is just a bit ungainly and a bit pointless. The Sun
Jacqueline, but we had always called her Jack, for brevity, and because, with her cropped head and rough ways, she resembled a boy more than a girl; her hair was growing now, and hung about her neck in short ungainly lengths, but I doubt whether in its present stage it was any improvement. Esther : a book for girls
She stayed there a moment, getting used to the pain, then turned stiffly and clomped to the door with ungainly steps that grew steadier with each forced movement. Crimson Wind
His ungainly, inelegant posture can leave him exposed against nimbler opponents, and he easily attracts ridicule.
The thin, ungainly boy didn't seem to have the makings of a star gymnast.
We must keep our girls from contact with all that is coarse and debasing; must teach them to behave properly at home and abroad; and not to sit and lounge about or stand in ungainly attitudes; and read books which serve only to inflame the passions, and not to improve either mind or manners. A Manual of Etiquette with Hints on Politeness and Good Breeding
What appeared to be an original Cezanne hung on the wall above an ungainly sofa, upholstered in a hideous, embroidered fabric of pale green. DOUBTING THOMAS
This "lopping" disturbs the harmonious relation of the weights of shoulders, abdomen, head, and the large lower gluteal muscles with which nature has cushioned the lower part of the body, and so they are obliged to readjust themselves to balance each other, and the awkward, ungainly, unhealthful posture results. What a Young Woman Ought to Know
I thought him terribly ungainly when he danced.
He looks almost exactly as I'd left him; awkward, ungainly and birdlike.
Downtown made its inevitable appearance before the close, along with a slightly ungainly Sixties medley. Times, Sunday Times
At one moment they would pass a group of giraffe, running in their ungainly fashion to one side; hartebeests, impalla and other varieties of antelope were everywhere, gazing in fearless fashion at the train. The Rogue Elephant The Boys' Big Game Series
All because of a performance in a play widely regarded as impossibly ungainly. Times, Sunday Times
On an analysis based on, you know, around airports, where could a man with a pipe-like device, which is kind of ungainly and big and long and has a signature, where could that person just stand upright or even be in a kind of concealed position and let one of these missiles go? CNN Transcript Jun 1, 2002
Imitating it too faithfully would have killed the film's fragile momentum, but Minghella, working with the matchlessly resourceful editor Walter Murch, has tightened Frazier's ungainly tale while preserving its epic capaciousness.
There's a heart-breaking brevity to its ungainly, wooden, doomful little action. 'Words In Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell'
He felt clumsy and awkward in the air, his body too ungainly to be properly streamlined.
That most people walk in an ungraceful, ungainly and awkward manner with a forward inclination of the body does not mean that it is the normal way of walking.
I was ungainly and I was bored by sport, which in Australia is a sure sign that you're a bad person.
His black hair was matted with grime and clung to his scalp in ungainly tufts.
And we see that Julia carries a crimson face, and smiling look; although she stoops considerably, and her long arms and loping gait, make her appear to many, ungainly; she is ruddy as a rareripe peach, and smiles from her forehead and eyes, and face and mouth. Summerfield or, Life on a Farm
As the ungainly old tub surged slowly out of the little harbour, her worn-out and generally used-up appearance would have given a Board of Trade Inspector the nightmare; the piratical looks of her crowd were enough to frighten a shipload of passengers into fits; but to us who had seen their performances in all weathers, and under all circumstances, accidental externals had no weight in biassing our high opinion of them all. The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales
He is a huge man, ungainly and awkward, a maverick whose rhetoric can be as wild as a rodeo. Times, Sunday Times
Most common of all the overloaded comparatives and superlatives are ungainly shades of well-known, which display complete ignorance of the good-better-best, bad-worse-worst gradations.
The second was propped, ungainly as a rag doll, against the far wall.
On land the turtle is ungainly, but in the water it isvery agile.
“The ungainly chestnut Jake always referred to as the dud?” The Glory Game
In that ungainly position, the hilt of his sword jagged him in the ribs.
Just look at those phrases: `cumbersome unwieldiness' and `burdenous corpulence ' -- the words themselves sagging and ungainly on the line. THE CALLIGRAPHER
I am heaved back on in the most ungainly manner imaginable and we make our way past the cheering spectators. Times, Sunday Times
Downtown made its inevitable appearance before the close, along with a slightly ungainly Sixties medley. Times, Sunday Times
His legs immediately gave way and he rolled backwards with a loud thud, landing sprawled, suffering from chronically injured pride, in an ungainly heap.
Instead of the lithe enthusiast with flaming eyes he saw a heavily built man with blunted features, wearing powerful horn spectacles, his expression morose, his movements ungainly. The Altar Steps
The dog, an ungainly mongrel pup, was loping about the road.
Mating takes place at the surface, often an ungainly procedure involving much rolling about and waving of flippers as the amorous male tries to mount the female.
Perfect powder snow makes a satisfying scrunch as I plod out to the children's area, an ungainly heel-toe process in the leaden moon boots binding my ankles.
He was an ungainly figure and when he danced, many whistled, hooted, and laughed at him.
The resulting pieces at first look remarkably awkward and ungainly.
A dwarf on the sidewalk, not far from the St. Nicholas Hotel, has an immense head, with ugly and snubbish features, a short body, and ungainly limbs. The Secrets of the Great City
He felt clumsy and awkward in the air, his body too ungainly to be properly streamlined.
Consumer Reports said the Tahoe's handling was "ungainly" and its stopping distances too long. The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed
what an ungainly creature a giraffe is
Under the low slanting ceiling of the bathroom, he seems clumsy and ungainly.
If you have cartilage problems it is also rather painful, quite aside from the possibility of getting stuck in an ungainly kneeling position. Times, Sunday Times
The preacher at the Cross that day was a Black Friar -- a tall spare man, whom some might call gaunt and ungainly; a man of quick intelligence and radiant eyes, of earnest gesture and burning words. For the Master's Sake A Story of the Days of Queen Mary
He was bullied at school because he was tall, ungainly and dyslexic. Times, Sunday Times
His face was long and thin, his expression shrewd and good-natured, his limbs were long and ungainly. The Young Miner or Tom Nelson in California
You only have to see a film such as Sunrise to realise why many people considered the coming of sound as a disaster and why early talkies were crude and ungainly.
But there was also a beauty in the ungainly awkwardness but obvious enthusiasm of the supporting roles.
Paul swam in his ungainly way to the side of the pool.
We paused to scrutinise tree tops for the green, blue and yellow birds, and were rewarded by several pairs of the tubby ungainly fowl.
It is a batsman's game with bowlers happy if they can avoid being hit into kingdom come and it is surprising how many of the big boundary blows are the result of proper strokes rather than ungainly slogs.
Another ungainly blow from me, and my sword was met with the blade of Conrad's sword and was quickly swept aside.
a stumpy ungainly figure
If a grader were a person, he might be called ungainly, awkward, or even a klutz.
Do we identify with the ungainly, terrified wretch who will soon be dead meat, or do we get a thrill imagining ourselves as the sleek, athletic predator?
The thing that is ungainly, vulnerable, embarrassing. I Am Sorry to Inform You
That most people walk in an ungraceful, ungainly and awkward manner with a forward inclination of the body does not mean that it is the normal way of walking.
Then people wouldn't be pressurised into extending their homes in an ungainly fashion. Times, Sunday Times
I don't know (though I'm sure one of my readers will) how much truth there is in the story, but I zeroed in on the word "Laserpithium," an ungainly word (made more ungainly by being pointlessly capitalized) that I had to investigate. Languagehat.com: ROMAN LASER.
In spite of the ungainly figure he cuts, there is something instantly soothing about the monk.
Say what you like about his technique and his ungainly style, but his physical presence is a huge asset. Times, Sunday Times
But it was the way she won her races, gutsily from the front, as well as that ungainly action, which captured the hearts of the racing public.
He was one that fans may not have taken to straight away because he's ungainly, but he would have won them over with his goals.
With a series of ungainly steps, clumsy lunges, and eventually a kind of painful waddle, he made his way to the phone.
Zack was fascinated with the baby geese, laughing at their ungainly waddle, watching them as they foraged through the grass.
One type of bird had a bit of an ungainly way of carrying itself in flight, splaying its legs out as it went and wobbling a bit.
Whatever halted their ungainly landing recovery, however, was a great deal softer and more pliant than the opposing wall of the tunnel would have been.
Large, ungainly and hanging onto my thick specs, I'd leap over a vault with my free hand, landing with a resonant thud on the other side, and I loved it.
Mothers and fathers send out the message that boys are awkward, ungainly and silly.
It all looked so ungainly and ugly, as if the moving parts ought to clash. Times, Sunday Times
The high ceilings and unbroken expanses of wall in such a house can make the rooms seem awkward and ungainly.
He also stated, "Lincoln is the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mass of legs and arms and hatchet face ever strung on a single frame. GOPUSA
It looks very ungainly, rather strange and is very poor English. Times, Sunday Times
Cowell called her performance "ungainly" and "gimmicky" and he hated her outfit. TV Envy
I was always a bit awkward and ungainly as a child, so I thought that maybe I was just on the clumsy side.
Her steed mumbled something inaudible as he restarted his ungainly walk to the church doors.
Her mother had little time for her large, ungainly daughter, who was forced to do ballet. Times, Sunday Times
The dog, an ungainly mongrel pup, was loping about the road.
Taylor was always playing catch up against an energetic, ungainly player who just would not lie down.
Just look at those phrases: `cumbersome unwieldiness' and ` burdenous corpulence' -- the words themselves sagging and ungainly on the line. THE CALLIGRAPHER
I was always a bit awkward and ungainly as a child, so I thought that maybe I was just on the clumsy side.
I learned to ski in the Dolomites more than 20 years ago, and memories of those buttery sunsets have stayed with me as much as the first awkward turns and ungainly falls off button lifts.
a gawky lad with long ungainly legs
Ungainly and uninventive as they are, this English side could still thrive in this competition.
How frenzily he imagines; how crossly he thinks; how ungainly he carries it under convictions, counsels, and his present apprehension of things! The Riches of Bunyan
Not so long ago, this ungainly partnership was faring poorly.
The earliest to develop were the somewhat more derived ungainly carnivores, omnivores and herbivores of the Dinocephalian lineages.
Not so large that they were ungainly and made him clumsy, but not so small that you would be suspicious of him.
He bundled the sails over the booms and tied them into ungainly lumps, then went to the wheelhouse.
But havoc and harmony learn to coexist, most harmoniously on ‘Circle Square Triangle’, whose guitars punch thick upbeats despite an ungainly note count.
He was entering that awkward stage of early adolescence and had become a somewhat ungainly-looking boy.
Mothers and fathers send out the message that boys are awkward, ungainly and silly.
The bases are ungainly, jerry-built settings that playfully complement the divalike trees.
This morning I read it, and it is a lump of leaden prose, ungainly and unattractive, like a plain fat spotty teenager at her prom, dressed like a Christmas cake.
Though this may be unexceptionable enough from the point of view of gender, it's a messy and ungainly solution stylistically, and one to be avoided.

How To Use Ungainly In A Sentence

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