gauche
[ gohsh ]
/ goʊʃ /
adjective
lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless: Their exquisite manners always make me feel gauche.
RELATED WORDS
awkward, clumsy, crude, graceless, green, halting, heavy-handed, ignorant, ill-mannered, inelegant, inept, insensitive, lacking, maladroit, oafish, uncouth, uncultured, unhappy, unpolished, wooden
Nearby words
- gatun,
- gatun lake,
- gatvol,
- gatún lake,
- gau,
- gaucher's cell,
- gaucher's disease,
- gaucherie,
- gaucho,
- gaud
Origin of gauche
1745–55; < French: awkward, left; Middle French, derivative of gauchir to turn, veer < Germanic
à gauche
[ a gohsh ]
/ a ˈgoʊʃ /
adverb French.
on or to the left-hand side.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for gauche
gauche
/ (ɡəʊʃ) /
adjective
lacking ease of manner; tactless
Word Origin for gauche
C18: French: awkward, left, from Old French gauchir to swerve, ultimately of Germanic origin; related to Old High German wankōn to stagger
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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gauche
"awkward, tactless," 1751 (Chesterfield), from French gauche "left" (15c., replacing Old French senestre in that sense), originally "awkward, awry," from Middle French gauchir "turn aside, swerve," from Old French gaucher "trample, reel, walk clumsily," from Frankish *welkan "to full" (cloth), from Proto-Germanic *wankjan (cf. Old High German wankon, Old Norse vakka "to stagger, totter;" see wink (v.)).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper