ˈæ.mə.tə ˈæ.mə.tɚ ˈæ.mə.tʃʊɚ.ɪʃ not doing a good job incompetent at chess lacking professional skill or expertise a very amateurish job inexpert but conscientious efforts an unskilled painting not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency unskilled in the art of rhetoric an enthusiastic but unskillful mountain climber unskilled labor workers in unskilled occupations are finding fewer and fewer job opportunities unskilled workmanship