Gawky

//ˈɡɔːki// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An awkward, ungainly person.

    ""[…] Mrs. Sedley had forgiven his breaking the punch-bowl at the child's party. Don't you remember the catastrophe, Ma'am, seven years ago?" "Over Mrs. Flamingo's crimson silk gown," said good-natured Mrs. Sedley. "What a gawky it was! And his sisters are not much more graceful. Lady Dobbin was at Highbury last night with three of them. Such figures! my dears.""

Adjective
  1. 1
    Awkward, ungainly; lacking grace or dexterity in movement.

    "The “gawky” illustrations look as though they may have been done by Belva Jean herself (Bulletin, Mar. 1989)."

  2. 2
    Left-handed. Yorkshire
Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking grace in movement or posture wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
gaucheungainlyall thumbsawkwardblunderheadedblundering

Example

More examples

"The “gawky” illustrations look as though they may have been done by Belva Jean herself (Bulletin, Mar. 1989)."

Etymology

From gawk + -y.

More for "gawky"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.