gawk
[gawk]
- to stare stupidly; gape: The onlookers gawked at arriving celebrities.
- an awkward, foolish person.
Origin of gawk
1775–85; apparently representing OE word meaning fool, equivalent to ga(gol) foolish + -oc -ock; used attributively in gawk hand, gallock hand left hand
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. peer, ogle, gaze, goggle, rubberneck.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gawked
Contemporary Examples
Jerry Lee told reporters who gawked at the little girl that she was fifteen.
I gawked at the sea of broker posts, specialist booths, and flat-screen monitors surrounding me.
As the three Graneys gawked at the food, one of the guards said, “For the last meal, he gets anything he wants.”
Historical Examples
Well, isn't there some place we can go where we won't be gawked at by all these hoodlums?
Tabitha's VacationRuth Alberta Brown
He just gawked at him from the deck, noting that the man had one hand on a sheath knife.
The SyndicC.M. Kornbluth
I stood there with my chin two inches from the rug and gawked at him.
Call Him SavageJohn Pollard
In any case she must often have been stung by the exasperation of those at whom she gawked.
The JudgeRebecca West
He gawked, reddening; his right hand quivered; and to my chagrin he slowly laughed, scanning me.
Desert DustEdwin L. Sabin
gawk
- a clumsy stupid person; lout
- (intr) to stare in a stupid way; gape
Word Origin
C18: from Old Danish gaukr; probably related to gape
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for gawked
gawk
v.
1785, American English, perhaps from gaw, a survival from Middle English gowen "to stare" (c.1200), from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse ga "to heed," from Proto-Germanic *gawon-, from PIE *ghow-e- "to honor, revere, worship" (see favor (n.)); and altered perhaps by gawk hand (see gawky). Liberman writes that it "need not have been derived from gowk. It is possibly another independent imitative formation with the structure g-k. Related: Gawked; gawking.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper