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.
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
I remember lining up for hours to see Burton’s "Batman" as a gawky sixteen-year-old in 1996, when nerdy was truly nerdy, not a front-handed compliment.
From Salon • Oct. 1, 2024
His legs move with gawky and mechanical articulations, knees bending while his hands hang at his sides.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
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.
