Word.ws English Dictionary

gawky

/ˈɡɔːki/

gawky adjective: awkward, ungainly; lacking grace or dexterity in movement.

Adjective

gawky (comparative gawkier, superlative gawkiest)

  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).2009, Appalachian Children's Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, McFarland, →ISBN, page 77
    • The woman had barely come up to Seth's shoulder. Petite with curly blonde hair and a dimpled smile. Nothing at all like Francine with her plain brown hair and hazel eyes. Just looking at the woman's picture had made her feel tall and gawky.2020, Ann H. Gabhart, An Appalachian Summer, Revell, →ISBN
  2. (Yorkshire, West Riding) Left-handed.

Noun

gawky (plural gawkies)

  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...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
    • Let not the inconveniently tall, the gawkies, the Maypoles, despair.1870, Punch, volume 58, page 198

gawky meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

gawky in Urdu

بےڈھنگا, بےتکا, ہونق, جھینپو

gawky in Malayalam

gangling, awkward, ungainly
അകുശലമായ, ജഡമായ, കെെമിടുക്കില്ലാത്ത, അദക്ഷ, അസമർത്ഥമായ, അനിപുണ

gawky in Kannada

ಅಷ್ಟಾವಕ್ರ, ವಕ್ರವಕ್ರವಾದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ವಕ್ರವಕ್ರವಾದ, ಒಡ್ಡೊಡ್ಡಾದ

Synonyms of gawky

Forms of gawky

Adjective
comparativegawkier
superlativegawkiest
Noun
pluralgawkies

Origin of gawky

From gawk + -y.

Words formed from gawky

Words that rhyme with gawky

Questions about gawky

What does gawky mean?
Gawky means awkward, ungainly; lacking grace or dexterity in movement.
What is gawky in Urdu?
Gawky in Urdu is بےڈھنگا, بےتکا, ہونق. See Gawky meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is gawky?
Gawky can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce gawky?
Gawky is pronounced /ˈɡɔːki/.

Words near gawky in the dictionary

  1. gawkishness
  2. gawkling
  3. gawklings
  4. gawks
  5. gawksome
  6. gawky
  7. Gawler
  8. Gawley
  9. Gawlik
  10. Gawliks
  11. gawm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gawky (page history and authors); gawky (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gawky (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); gawky (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gawky.wav.

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