If you’re a ‘butterfingers’, you’re clumsy and often drop things. It can also mean you’re bad at catching things, for example in sports. It comes from the idea of your fingers being slippery like they’re covered in butter.
‘Butterfingers’ is usually used after ‘have’, ‘get’ or ‘a’. Here are some examples.
I dropped another plate! I guess I just have butterfingers today.
Don’t make Sammy the backstop, he’s a real butterfingers.
That’s an expensive laptop so don’t get butterfingers and drop it.
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So, what do we call someone who doesn’t drop things or is good at catching?
There isn’t a single word like ‘butterfingers’ so we often say to have ‘a safe pair of hands’, especially in sports. Here’s an example.
Let’s make Sally the goalkeeper, she’s got a safe pair of hands.
So, do you have ‘butterfingers’ or ‘a safe pair of hands’?
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