Word.ws English Dictionary

gormy

/ˈɡɔːmi/US/ˈɡɔɹmi/

gormy adjective: awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly. Also the alternative spelling of gaumy.

Adjective

gormy (not comparable)

  1. (New-England, Northern England, UK, US) Awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly.
    • And not always with finesse — the Lombard clanked and churned, and a man who is like a regular Lombard may be a bit gormy and sometimes apply brute strength when he might do the work easier if he'd stop and think a little.1990, John Gould, There Goes Maine!: A Somewhat History, Sort of, of the Pine Tree State, New York, N.Y.: Norton, →ISBN, page 1187
    • Kimball was never one to argue with a comrade's eyes and ears, not even those of a gormy jeezer like Connolly.1990, Maurice Shadbolt, Monday’s Warriors: […], Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 5
    Synonyms:
    gorming

Also used as

gormy is also the alternative spelling of gaumy.

Examples of gormy in a sentence

  • The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called "a gormy lad."2009, Stephen King, chapter 23, in Under the Dome: […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 682:
  • Just the sort of place gormy Eugene would pick to hold a family get-together.2010 March, Pat Cunningham, chapter 4, in A London Werewolf in America, [Austin, Tex.]: Siren-BookStrand, →ISBN, page 32:

Synonyms of gormy

Origin of gormy

Either: * from gorm (“fool; one who is undiscerning”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’); or * a variant of gaumy (“awkward”), from gaum (“to stare idly or vacantly; to gape, gaze; to be awkward or stupid; a lout; a gaping, idle fellow”) + -y.

From gorm, gaum (“to smear; grime (noun)”) + -y.

Words that rhyme with gormy

Questions about gormy

What does gormy mean?
Gormy means awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly.
How do you use gormy in a sentence?
The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called "a gormy lad."
What part of speech is gormy?
Gormy is an adjective.
How do you pronounce gormy?
Gormy is pronounced /ˈɡɔːmi/ (UK).

Words near gormy in the dictionary

  1. Gormley
  2. Gormleys
  3. Gormogon
  4. Gormogons
  5. gorms
  6. gormy
  7. gorn
  8. Gornall
  9. Gornet
  10. Gornet-Cricov
  11. Gorney

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gormy (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.

Last updated:

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

Cite this entry: “gormy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gormy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.