aw-shucks

American

[aw-shuhks] / ˈɔˈʃʌks /

adjective

Informal.

characterized by a shy, embarrassed, often provincial manner.

aw-shucks British

/ ˌɔːˈʃʌks /

adjective

seeming to be modest, self-deprecating, or shy

don't be fooled by his aw-shucks attitude

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of aw-shucks

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

aw-shucks

With his country twang and aw-shucks mannerisms belying a keen intellect, Will Rogers was the lasso-roping star of vaudeville and the Broadway stage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025

Someone at the start of a promising career in journalism who is so aggressively flattering and greasily evasive, with a snap-on, snakelike, aw-shucks smile, has got to have a scheme up his sleeve.

From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2024

“We should not be fooled by his aw-shucks style,” Fea added in Current, an online journal.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2023

But all of Archduke Eduard’s aw-shucks baroque kitsch cannot obscure the fact that all the modern horrors that Habsburg laments, from Protestantism and capitalism to secularism and mass democracy, were birthed on his family’s watch.

From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2023

So the governor, beaming, raised his hands again and stared down at his notes on the podium with a look of practiced, aw-shucks humility on his face.

From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023