hamfist

From ham +‎ fist.

hamfist (third-person singular simple present hamfists, present participle hamfisting, simple past and past participle hamfisted)

1. (colloquial) To handle crudely.
   • 1972, “Scottish Racing Section”, in Britain’s Year Book of Pigeon Racing, Weybridge, Surrey: Pigeon Racing News & Gazette, →OCLC, page 227:

     We had an open race and clocks were being read in the clubroom and I had the dubious pleasure of opening the clocks and taking out the ribbons, reckon I’d never make a clock ‘fixer’ the way I was hamfisting through the job, the old Toulets and Benzings were OK but it happened!!

   • 2006 November 15, Kingsley M. Bray, “Crying for a Vision”, in Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life (The Civilization of the American Indian Series; 254), Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, pages 44–45:

     Heyoka, dressed in outlandish masks, or sporting phallic false noses, proceeded to impede and obstruct the cooking, neglecting to singe off the dog’s hair, hamfisting the butchering.

   • 2015 January 21, Estelulu [pseudonym], “Translator Notes”, in Sakura Ageha, Otome Game no Burikko Akuyaku Onna wa Mahou Otaku ni Natta‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 December 2019, page 3:

     Burikko refers to a girl who likes to act all cutesy or innocent, usually adult women who fawn on men affectedly and act like little girls. […] (There is no satisfactory English equivalent, and I don’t believe in hamfisting things just to seem like a ‘better translator’. […])

   • 2022 October 7, India McTaggart, quoting Gregory Edmund, “Vale, Carolus: Latin name for King Charles dropped from new coins”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     It’s pretty seismic to just suddenly shift out to Charles III rather than Carolus. If the Royal Mint wants to have a discussion and say actually all coins need to be in English from now on, so be it. But don’t sort of hamfist [it] by putting the two and trying to fudge it.

2. (aviation) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1968, W. J. P. Knight, “X-15 Performance and Piloting Tasks”, in The Aeronautical Journal, volume 72, London: Royal Aeronautical Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 801, column 2:

     So you could make an altitude flight and probably never touch the stick. But this does not lend itself to some of the experiments that we had to accomplish, and the system was an experimental system. It was not required to go through these whole modes for the flight. In fact it is sometimes easier to do it yourself rather than rely on the automatic system, because you know where you are and you know what you are going to do. Sometimes you forget to turn one of these whole modes off and it might get you into a bigger problem than if you were hamfisting it around yourself.

   • 1981 March, Bruce P. Eaton, “Expect the unexpected”, in Dale E. Smith, editor, Approach: The Naval Aviation Safety Review, volume 26, number 9, Norfolk, Va.: Naval Safety Center; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 32, column 2:

     Normal A-7 departure procedures also call for disengaging all modes except yaw stab of the AFCS. Since I was unsure of the problem and felt it may have been AFCS-induced, I luckily decided not to reengage any higher modes. The position of the culprit nut would probably have been aggravated by using control augmentation or “hamfisting” the stick.

   • 1981 May, Nigel Moll, “Over Easy: Straighten out and fly right is the wrong advice for the pilot learning aerobatics”, in Richard L[awrence] Collins, editor, Flying, volume 108, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 98–100:

     The Aerobat is really a pussycat in tiger stripes. It has never claimed any aerobatic fame, and is basically just a beefed-up 150/152. I tried to abuse it—by botching an imaginary base-to-final turn or by hamfisting a steep turn—but I could not goad it into biting; that’s probably a good trait in a pilot’s first aerobatic airplane.

   • 1991 June, Datu Ramel, “Kyosho EP Concept”, in Tom Atwood, editor, Model Airplane News, Wilton, Conn.: Air Age, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 88, column 4:

     The plastic tube holding the tail-rotor wire has a hard time passing through the black support in the tail boom. Enlarge the hole with a needle file to avoid “hamfisting” and kinking the tail-rotor rod.

   • 1995, David R. Haag, “Soaring Mail”, in Soaring, volume 59, Hobbs, N.M.: Soaring Society of America, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 3:

     As I said before, I’m new to gliding. Still have a bad case of “hamfisting” the 1-26. In fact, if it were transponder equipped, I’d squawk “7700” entering downwind for every arrival.

   • 2006 October 2, Johan Kylander, “On Guns and Gunnery”, in In Pursuit: A Pilot’s Guide to Online Air Combat, Stockholm: Pilot Press, →ISBN, page 84:

     It is also quite frequent, for beginner pilots especially, to become excited in the firing instance and further scatter their fire through hamfisting of the stick.

3. (music) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1997 October 30, Charles Harper Webb, “One Story”, in Reading the Water, Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University Press, →ISBN, page 18:

     A rock-and-roll band is involved, a smart kid—scorned by the Cool Dudes—crowned overnight as the curtain rises on him, gripping a red Gibson guitar, hamfisting through Freddie King’s “San José.”

   • 2008 April, Rob Chapman, “‘Hello,’ He Lied”, in Dusk Music, Hexham, Northumberland: Flambard Press, →ISBN, page 48:

     On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he heard students of widely varying competence wading through sickly layers of Liszt, cakewalking all over Debussy, hamfisting Chopin, pummelling Rachmaninov into sequined Liberace shapes.

   • 2017 February 16, Ajay Close, “Nudge”, in The Daughter of Lady Macbeth, Dingwall, Highland: Sandstone Press, →ISBN, page 177:

     Only Kit played like a hick, and still my blood reared at the sight of him in that sleazy nineties dress shirt, hamfisting his guitar.

hamfist (plural hamfists)

1. This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1981 December, Piers Anthony, “Good Omen”, in Centaur Aisle (Xanth; 4), London: Futura, published 1985, →ISBN, page 253:

     The ogre knew what to do. He roared and made a threatening gesture with one hamfist.

   • 2004 May, Cory Herndon, “Ogre and Under”, in The Fifth Dawn (Magic: The Gathering; Mirrodin Cycle; III), Renton, Wash.: Wizards of the Coast, →ISBN, page 240:

     The gigantic ogre caught up to them with only three steps. It tossed the stump club aside and easily scooped each of them up in a massive hamfist.

   • 2017 November 28, N[ora] K[eita] Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 12, in Initiation (Mass Effect: Andromeda; 2), London: Titan Books, →ISBN, page 221:

     One of its massive arms hung limp and broken, but it hung from the wall opposite the elevator doors by its one good hamfist, the fingers punched into the metal wall for a grip.