heavy-handed

• heavyhanded

heavy-handed (comparative more heavy-handed, superlative most heavy-handed)

1. Clumsy, awkward.
   • 2012, Margaret Powell, The Downstairs Cookbook, →ISBN:

     Some people say, 'I can't make pastry, I'm too heavy-handed.'

2. Excessive, overdone.
   • 2015, Suzanne Lenzer, Truly Madly Pizza, →ISBN:

     However, recently I got a little heavy-handed with the red pepper flakes.

   Do not be too heavy-handed with the salt.

3. Simplistic, lacking subtlety or nuance.
   • 2005, Nicholas Rombes, The Ramones' Ramones, →ISBN:

     ...punk “music has been, and still is, one of the most heavy-handed genres of music there is. Unfortunately the topics of such heavy-handed songs are almost always seeped in left wing propaganda, bumper sticker rallying calls and oversimplifications of otherwise complex topics."

4. Overbearing; pushy and coercive.
   • 2014, Jayne Ann Krentz, River Road, →ISBN:

     “Heavy-handed, huh? Is that by any chance your way of telling me that I'm a bad communicator?" "No, it's my way of telling you that you obviously haven't shaken the take-charge attitude."

5. Extreme; unnecessarily forceful; harsh, oppressive, and cruel.
   • 2015, John D. Visconti, Fetch More Dollars For Your Dog Training Business, →ISBN:

     I cite how ineffective heavy-handed training methods are due to the physiological state of high arousal and avoidance behaviors they cause in dogs.

• (clumsy): awkward, cack-handed, clumsy, ham-handed, ham-fisted, maladroit
• (excessive): excessive, OTT, over the top
• (simplistic): blunt, crude, oversimplistic, simplistic, unsubtle
• (overbearing): bossy, coercive, dictatorial, forceful, overbearing
• (unnecessarily forceful): brutal, cruel, draconian, hardhanded, harsh, overstrict, rough, sadistic, strict

• heavy-handedly
• heavy-handedness