as in awkward
having or showing an inability to move in a graceful manner the kind of gawkish girl who trips while receiving her high school diploma

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for gawkish
Adjective
  • Eddie's real parentage is revealed, Maeve is outed, Kevin catches up with Rusby, Bella brokers her deal, and Alice attends an awkward Harrigan dinner.
    Matt Cabral, EW.com, 26 May 2025
  • There is also an awkward disconnect: Gmail’s recent encryption upgrade clashes with its AI upgrades.
    Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 25 May 2025
Adjective
  • These transitions, between past and present, are sometimes clumsy but sometimes genuinely sweet, as with an old letter that near-simultaneously is dictated and written, received and read, and finally rediscovered (and only partially understood) in the 21st century.
    Jessica Kiang, Variety, 27 May 2025
  • Wildlife officials helped remove a black bear found hanging out in the kitchen of a Kentucky home after an impressive, yet clumsy break-in, photos show.
    Mitchell Willetts, Kansas City Star, 25 May 2025
Adjective
  • Not only that, but he was being fed an unsteady diet of cockroaches.
    Charlie Mason, TVLine, 4 May 2025
  • His unsteady performance has left markets lurching from one crisis to another, and his contempt for tradition continues to rattle both Washington institutionalists and Wall Street investors.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 30 Apr. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Gawkish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gawkish. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!