Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An awkward, loutish person; an oaf.
- v. To stare or gape stupidly. See Synonyms at gaze.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cuckoo. [Scotch and North. Eng.] — 2. A stupid, awkward fellow; a fool; a simpleton; a booby. Also gawky.
- Foolish.
- To act like a gawk; go about awkwardly; look like a fool.
Wiktionary
- n. a cuckoo
- n. a fool
- v. To stare or gape stupidly
- v. To stare conspicuously.
- n. a simpleton, stupid or clumsy person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A cuckoo.
- n. A simpleton; a booby; a gawky.
- v. To act like a gawky.
- v. To stare with empty-minded fascination; to stare stupidly; to gape; -- usually used with at.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an awkward stupid person
- v. look with amazement; look stupidly
Etymologies
- A Middle-Appalachian Americanism, since late 1800s, possibly misconstruing French "gauche," and leading to use of adj gawky for a person or process that is uncoordinated or awkward. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps alteration (influenced by gawk hand, left hand) of obsolete gaw, to gape, from Middle English gawen, from Old Norse gā, to heed. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“3 - Leaves draw tourists by the droves to come up and gawk, which is never a fun thing because they drive really slowly on the back roads - always frustrating when you're in a hurry somewhere.”
“The human body is miraculous and beautiful, but I don't think I want to -- for want of a better word -- "gawk" at skinned, butchered, and posed corpses.”
“This blog post is actually a specific request to please never "gawk" at me from a distance.”
“We're talking mostly about conditions experienced by people who do not likely read this book or gawk at its pictures.”
“I gawk and converse with other folks on twitter doing the same.”
Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing Wax And Hoarding Stuff And Things | Her Bad Mother
“Much like we watched Jon and Kate fall apart and continued to gawk, and the latest issues with Tiger Woods.”
Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing Wax And Hoarding Stuff And Things | Her Bad Mother
“Almost as unbelievable is the show's nearly cartoonish Southern stereotyping: The town is called Bluebell, gators named Burt Reynolds run loose, and twangy town folk gawk at the new Yankee in their presence.”
“One technique is to skate a large figure eight around him, never stooping to gawk.”
The Huffington Post: Erica Abeel: WHEN CUTTING OFF YOUR ARM IS THE SOLUTION
“But in rejecting her, we are also rejecting ourselves and that is why we feel a little guilty when we laugh along with Zack Galifianakis or gawk at the pictures of her in magazines.”
The Huffington Post: Toni Raiten-D’Antonio: We Can All Learn Something From Snooki
“For the same reason we gawk at accidents on the highway and train wrecks on the tracks.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gawk’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Programming Languages
The last time someone tried this theme, it was a closed list with only two words; time to make amends. Scripting languages, etc. are also fair game...
c, c++, java, pascal, delphi, python, perl, lisp, algol, cobol, ada, apl and 121 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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I am : looking
To describe facial expressions when attending to something.
look, peer, glance, stare, glare, glower, ogle, peek, observe, scrutinize, gaze, gape and 18 more...
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Alternatives to LOOK
Look is a boring word.
admire, focus, contemplate, gawk, inspect, scan, scrutinized, spot, study, observe, gaze, stare and 3 more...
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Here's Looking At You Kid
Synonyms or funny substitutes for the word 'look'.
gaze, glare, saw, penned, peeked, poked, bore, blazed, glance, search, gaped, gawped and 41 more...
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[Open] Sinister Ascriptions
These words either descend from a word or root referring to the left side or direction (e.g., “sinister”) or refer to the concept themselves. Many, but not all, have negative connotations.
sinister, sinistral, gauche, bend sinister, bar sinister, sinister-handed, sinisterly, oculus sinister, ambisinister, sinister base, sinister aspect, ramus sinister and 43 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gawk.
yarb Ebenezer and the farmer, gawking up, saw the tree descending on them and they were petrified with terror. Both realized they would rather not die at this particular time.
- William Steig, Farmer Palmer's Wagon Ride Sep 29, 2008