gawk
Americanverb (used without object)
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gawks,
present (3rd person singular)
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gawked,
past participle, past
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gawking
present participle
noun
noun
verb
Usage
Where does the word gawk come from? We've all gawked, or "stared stupidly," at various spectacles, from acrobats to celebrity meltdowns. Word nerds gawk at the origin of gawk—because it's a spectacular puzzle. Gawk is recorded in 1775–85 in American English. It's believed that gawk is based on an Old English word meaning "fool," which appears in gawk hand or gallock hand, referring to the left hand. Our apologies, lefties. An alternative idea is that gawk is based on gaw, an old word meaning "to gaze, stare," with an additional -k suffix found in other words such as talk and stalk. Stubborn isn’t alone: it finds lots of company in other English words that seem simple but whose origins are not. Discover more in our slideshow “‘Dog,’ ‘Boy,’ And Other Words That We Don’t Know Where They Came From."
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gawksimple
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gawkssimple
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have gawkedperfect
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has gawkedperfect
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am gawkingprogressive
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are gawkingprogressive
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is gawkingprogressive
-
have been gawkingperfect progressive
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has been gawkingperfect progressive
Past
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gawkedsimple
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had gawkedperfect
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was gawkingprogressive
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were gawkingprogressive
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had been gawkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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
Explanation
When you stare in amazement at something, you gawk at it. You might stand frozen in one position with your mouth and eyes wide open and gawk when you see a famous movie star on the street. The verb gawk was first recorded in American English in 1785. It may have evolved from the word gaw, which came from the Middle English word gowen, meaning "to stare." When you gawk at something, you get completely absorbed in what you're looking at. It's usually not considered polite behavior to gawk at another person, especially if it's someone you find attractive. After all, staring is rude.
Vocabulary lists containing gawk
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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:
Yet the lizard brain making you gawk is shrieking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Upon visiting the day cares, Shirley and his middle-aged male partner, David, discover the centers have locked their doors and won’t let them in to gawk at the children.
From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2026
To them, he is something to gawk at while patting themselves on the back for “accepting” him.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2025
Some tourists are just people on vacation there to gawk, while others are influencers there for content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2025
Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
The crowd gawks at her — devout eyes wide, lips parted as if witnessing a miracle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
Anyone who sits through the end credits of a franchise movie and gawks at screens filled with hundreds of names of special effects and visual effects crew knows most of the is digitally animated.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2024
The sweet little shrug that the grown-up, matronly Dakota Johnson gives to Dismukes, as he gawks at her younger self strutting around the stage, makes the entire sketch worthwhile.
From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2024
The best ones are also well-constructed and stylishly shot works that simultaneously elicit gawks and delight.
From Washington Post ● May 11, 2017
A little boy gawks at them with a wide-open mouth.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
In addition to a steady stream of sellers, the machine also drew the attention of bystanders who gawked at the large sums of money changing hands at the unassuming corner of the mall.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
They gawked at the pallets of foie gras.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
In Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Sunday, onlookers gawked at a charred hilltop, where newly fallen leaves had already obscured the scorched earth of Friday’s 2-acre brushfire.
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2024
Before a Syracuse-Virginia Tech game matching the alma maters of his great uncle and father, Sturdivant gawked at the size of the players, the eighth-grader never thinking he could measure up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
I didn’t care to be gawked at, nor did I like being ordered to parade myself around, but what was the point of saying so unless I was going to walk off the job?
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
In recent days, social media has been filled with videos of Europeans gawking at the staples of suburban American life—a two-car garage, a walk-in closet, a second refrigerator.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Maybe it’s just disorienting because no one anticipated gawking at his torso inside the historic downtown Los Angeles venue founded by Hollywood legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
People watching from inside the building could be seen gawking and tapping at the glass, as Honnold moved past the enclosed observation deck on the 89th floor.
From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026
The 66-year-old Sydneysider remembers gawking at enormous great white sharks hauled in by fishermen as a kid, back in the days the now-protected species could still be legally hunted.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025
The walk back into the Glade and then to the Homestead seemed endless, a row of Gladers on both sides gawking at them.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
