gawk
pronunciation
How to pronounce gawk in British English:
UK [gɔ:k]
How to pronounce gawk in American English:
US [ɡɔk]
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- Noun:
- an awkward stupid person
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- Verb:
- look with amazement; look stupidly
Word Origin
- gawk (v.)
- "stare stupidly," 1785, American English, of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Watkins] from gaw, a survival from Middle English gowen "to stare" (c. 1200), from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse ga "to heed," from Proto-Germanic *gawon, from PIE *ghow-e- "to honor, revere, worship" (see favor (n.)); and altered perhaps by gawk hand (see gawky). Liberman finds this untenable and writes that its history is entangled with that of gowk "cuckoo," which is from Scandinavian, but it need not be from that word, either. Nor is French gauche (itself probably from Germanic) considered a likely source. "It is possibly another independent imitative formation with the structure g-k" (compare geek). From 1867 as a noun. Related: Gawked; gawking.
Example
- 1. What a gawky and gauche gawk !
- 2. Turquoise eyes wink at me as I gawk at my appearance .
- 3. To gawk and grovel and stare at prince ali !
- 4. Would I gawk , would I look back and wonder , what are you doing ?
- 5. Buyer refuse gawk delivery sealed sample survey report following .