a. That takes hold of things with a loose slippery grasp, as if with fingers greased with butter; apt to let things fall or slip through one’s fingers. Also fig. (colloq.).
The dial. sense is often ‘unable to handle anything hot.’
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. i. 51. (She must not be butter fingred, sweet toothed, nor faint-hearted) for the first will let every thing fall; [etc.].
1841. Fraser’s Mag., XXIII. June, 671/1. I, alas! was too short-legged for a good leaper, and butterfingered at a catch.
1884. Chr. Comumw., 14 Feb., 428/3. A discreet Christian meets with few rebuffs; a blundering butter-fingered one with many.
