numb-handed

Having hands that are numb.

The wine-dark seas pass under, and the heavy boats swing round, and the men roll their nets and go, numb-handed, backs bent, harbor bound, gift-laden, home: where light, fast fading, locks land in gold, and gulls cross, crying, the scene, and cross again, crying.

I was in the delivery room as she was born into this world, nauseated by the excitement and numb-handed from Izzy squeezing the life from my digits.

Inept or clumsy.

'Oh, you scandalous, hypocritical, rusty-booted, numb-handed son of a puffing corn-cutter, why don't you turn your attention to feeding hens, cultivating cabbages, or making pantaloons for small folk, instead of killing hounds in this wholesale way'! roared Jack; an enquiry that set him foaming again.

Most folks associate London with White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and struggling numb-handed to start a fire in the snow. (You know how that one ends.)