gawky, a. and n.
(ˈgɔːkɪ)
[f. gawk n. (? or v.) + -y1.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons: Awkward and stupid; ungainly.
| 1759 J. Townley High Life below Stairs i. i, Under the Form of a gawky Country Boy I will be an Eye-witness of my Servants Behaviour. 1786 Burns Ep. to M'Adam ii, Now deil-ma-care about their jaw, The senseless, gawky million. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xi. Sigh 15 A stupid gawky boy of about 14. 1860 Thackeray Lovel ii, I should like to know who that great tall gawky..girl in the passage is. 1862 M. E. Braddon Lady Audley iii, Her cousin looked round in gawky embarrassment. |
2. transf. of things.
| 1821 Galt Ayrsh. Legatees x. 288 As for the town of Brighton, it's what I would call a gawky piece of London. 1832 L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 133 Never heard I in my life such an infernal noise as our great gawky ship made. 1843 Ld. Shaftesb. in Life xi. (1887) 263 The little church..choked with high gawky boxes that they call pews. |
B. n. An awkward, foolish person; a lout, a simpleton.
| 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 163 What signifies how pawky, Or gentle-born ye be,—bot youth In love your but a gawky. 1762 Lond. Chron. XI. 263/2 Some wear their hats..pointed into the air; those are the Gawkies. a 1764 Lloyd Fam. Ep. to Friend 55 The great gawky Admiration, Parent of stupid Imitation. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. ii. ii, She is..an awkward gawky. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. ii. 58 Audrey is the most perfect specimen of a wondering she-gawky. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. vi. xlviii, Nothing makes a woman more of a gawky than..showing tempers in public. |
Hence ˈgawkihood, the condition, state, or period of being a ‘gawky’; ˈgawkiness, the quality of being gawky.
| 1872 F. W. Robinson Bridge of Glass II. ii. xxii. 285 It was like the Fanny Redbridge whom he had teased and jested with in her girlhood and gawkyhood. 1873 R. Broughton Nancy III. ii. 32 The crude gawkiness of the raw girl he has drifted into marrying. 1889 Barrie Window in Thrums xiv. 127 The minister's wife..smiling good⁓humouredly at country gawkiness. |