gawky
Americanadjective
adjective
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clumsy or ungainly; awkward
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dialect left-handed
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gawky
Explanation
Gawky people are awkward and uncoordinated, like giraffes doing ballet. Teenagers often feel gawky when their arms and legs grow faster than the rest of them. If you've ever felt awkward and clumsy, tripping over your own feet as you head down the hall or bumping your head on your open locker, you know what it's like to feel gawky. This adjective comes from the 16th century phrase gawk hand, or "left hand."
Vocabulary lists containing gawky
Awkward Moments
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Whoops! Synonyms for "Clumsy"
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The Dragonet Prophecy
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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:
The two know each other from grade school years earlier but hadn’t been friends, and now they’re gawky teenagers practiced in the supreme virtue of adolescence, which is to be cool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
He said the teenager came across as an "unremarkable, sullen, untalkative, gawky teenage boy" during their sessions together.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2025
Hiccup, played this time with game and gawky charm by Mason Thames, has been raised to think the only solution to violence is more violence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2025
When he arrived on the scene with the Mariners as a rookie three years later, it was his teammates who were curious — curious about what the heck this gawky 6-foot-6 rookie was doing.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2024
Jon could almost see her in that moment, long-faced and gawky, all knobby knees and sharp elbows, with her dirty face and tangled hair.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
The gawkier sibling to its better-known predecessor, Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier,” “Fedora” is not a perfect piece.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
He is gawkier, with an almost formal reserve.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021
It did seem funny driving off with him, for when I came to think of it, I was never alone with a man before; but he was gawkier about it than I was.
From Set in Silver by Williamson, A. M. (Alice Muriel)
Yet Mitch refuses to forget the article, like a supermodel carting around her gawkiest middle-school photo as if to keep herself in check.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2018
He was seventeen years old when he entered college and was one of the "gawkiest" students.
From Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch by Ellis, Edward Sylvester
On the morning of the muster, there appeared before the tall Lieutenant, a man full three inches taller, and famous in his county as the gawkiest, slab-sidest, homeliest, best-natured fellow in the State.
From The Victim A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis by Dixon, Thomas
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.
