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gauche

[gohsh]
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adjective
  1. lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless: Their exquisite manners always make me feel gauche.
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Origin of gauche

1745–55; < French: awkward, left; Middle French, derivative of gauchir to turn, veer < Germanic
Related formsgauche·ly, adverbgauche·ness, noun
Can be confusedgauche gouache

Synonyms

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inept, clumsy, maladroit; coarse, gross, uncouth.

à gauche

[a gohsh]
adverb French.
  1. on or to the left-hand side.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

awkward, clumsy, crude, graceless, green, halting, heavy-handed, ignorant, ill-mannered, inelegant, inept, insensitive, lacking, maladroit, oafish, uncouth, uncultured, unhappy, unpolished, wooden

Examples from the Web for gauche

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • He came forward with a gauche gallantry, and offered his arm to Horatia.

  • The gauche boy gone from him, Milt took her hand, pressed it to his cheek.

    Free Air

    Sinclair Lewis

  • If she were not so tall!how can one be anything but gauche with a figure like that?

  • There is, even, in the architecture of Winnipeg, a sort of gauche pride visible.

  • He felt awkward, gauche, tongue-tied, hot and cold by turns.

British Dictionary definitions for gauche

gauche

adjective
  1. lacking ease of manner; tactless
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Derived Formsgauchely, adverbgaucheness, noun

Word Origin

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 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gauche

adj.

"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.)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper