How to Use ungainly in a Sentence

ungainly

adjective
  • He was tall and ungainly.
  • The first is to keep them from becoming huge, ungainly monsters.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 30 Apr. 2021
  • With their massive heads and linebacker shoulders, the beasts can seem ungainly.
    — Patricia Harris, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Aug. 2019
  • Heavy and ungainly out of water, these reptiles are supreme swimmers.
    — Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic, 15 Apr. 2016
  • On land, hippos appear slow and ungainly.
    — Francois Botha, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
  • With a birdlike arrangement, in contrast, the chest would have to be so large as to be ungainly.
    — Michael B. Habib, Scientific American, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Unlike a uniform steak, a butterflied leg of lamb is a lumpy, ungainly thing.
    — Melissa Clark, New York Times, 6 July 2018
  • The kitchen’s footprint stayed the same, but out went the ungainly original island.
    — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Mar. 2023
  • But all too often that means knee-high clompers that not only compel an ungainly walk, but are also a pain to store.
    — Hayley Phelan, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The other featured a duck squawking out the ungainly acronym that gave Aflac its name.
    — Maria Aspan, Fortune, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Horse relies on ungainly cliff-hangers to pull the reader from chapter to chapter.
    — Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic, 10 June 2022
  • This famously tall and ungainly president sits scrunched up in a chair, legs crossed, hand to chin, thinking hard.
    — Holland Cotter, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2016
  • But the Echo is a big, somewhat ungainly cylinder, and a bit pricey at $180.
    — Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Twin Cities, 28 May 2017
  • In its assembly hall, the desk microphones cut the air at ungainly angles.
    — James Verini, New York Times, 19 May 2022
  • Like a child learning to ride a bicycle, the bird then launched with ungainly effort, landing on a nearby shrub.
    — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 July 2019
  • The model’s body, meanwhile, assumes an ungainly, almost bizarre shape — all lumps and weird angles.
    — Washington Post, 17 Nov. 2021
  • The play was no masterpiece, an ungainly sprawl with a cast of more than two dozen that, if not shortened by a director, ran three and a half hours.
    — Adam Hochschild, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Oct. 2023
  • And, just like the Cayenne, the Panamera did so in spite of a rather ungainly exterior.
    — Will Sabel Courtney, Robb Report, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Back then, Ohanian was ungainly and clean-shaven, and he was often photographed in a hoodie and with a goofy smile.
    — Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2018
  • To outsiders, the Hef looks like an ungainly industrial workhorse that no longer works.
    — New York Times, 29 July 2022
  • Bratt has shoulder pads and a long, mullet-style hairdo with an ungainly bald patch, and his favorite toy is a Rubik’s cube.
    — Jocelyn Noveck, Detroit Free Press, 28 June 2017
  • All loads easier than wrangling an ungainly bird half the table doesn’t really much care for anyway (what?
    — Shilpa Uskokovic, Bon Appetit Magazine, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The oversized safety and bolt release are ungainly, and who’s going to swoon over yet another black plastic stock?
    — John B. Snow, Outdoor Life, 2 Jan. 2020
  • Some recent weight vests force you to put them on like a pullover, an ungainly process, but the Hypervest goes on like a coat and zips easily.
    — Mark Stock and Ebenezer Samuel, Men's Health, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Once stark horizons of blond ridges now bristle with windmills; ungainly fangs biting the edge off humming wires tethered to the dam's turbines.
    — Bill Monroe, OregonLive.com, 18 Aug. 2017
  • The two parties are locked in an ungainly waltz, gliding into one part of the country while losing their footing in another.
    — The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Unlike the ungainly first-gen model, the new Mirai makes its best impression from the outside.
    — Roberto Baldwin, Car and Driver, 16 Dec. 2020
  • That’s not a huge difference, yet the new car is a bit more pleasing to the eye than the ungainly 5-series GT.
    — Jens Meiners, Car and Driver, 16 June 2017
  • That’s not a huge difference, yet the new car is a bit more pleasing to the eye than the ungainly 5-series GT.
    — Car and Driver, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Instead of an ungainly pile of pillows, modern buyers prefer to let the materials sing.
    — Abby Wolner, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ungainly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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