unskilled
adjEtymology From un- + skilled.
1
Of a person or workforce: not having a skill or technical training.
- In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- Set against the background of the American civil war, with Keaton a cunning but unskilled driver, unaided, of the ponderous giant of a locomotive, it remains not only probably the funniest film about railways ever made, but one of the funniest silent films to retain its comic power over today's more sophisticated audiences.1958 February 23, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
2
Of a job: not requiring skill or training.
- The minimum hourly wage for construction workers has increased to NOK 250,30 per hour for skilled workers and NOK 226,90 for unskilled workers, with an additional rate of NOK 235,80 for unskilled workers with at least one year’s experience in the industry.2024 November 4, Terese Eriksen Eldholm, “Norway increases minimum wage rates across key industries”, in Magnus Legal, archived from the original on 20 Jun 2025:
3
Of a made object: inexpertly made or showing a lack of skill.
- Synonyms
- amateurish, backwards, bad, bungling, clumsy, ham-fisted, ham-handed, inapt, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, inept, inexpert, maladroit, miserable, noob, unable, unprofessional, unqualified, unskillful
- Antonyms
- skilled
- Related terms
- unskilful, unskillful, skill, inexperienced, unskilled person
- Hypernyms
- lacking