Awkward
['ɔːkwəd] or ['ɔkwɚd]
Definition
(adj.) socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner; 'awkward and reserved at parties'; 'ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know'; 'was always uneasy with strangers' .
(adj.) causing inconvenience; 'they arrived at an awkward time' .
(adj.) hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment; 'awkward (or embarrassing or difficult) moments in the discussion'; 'an awkward pause followed his remark'; 'a sticky question'; 'in the unenviable position of resorting to an act he had planned to save for the climax of the campaign' .
(adj.) not elegant or graceful in expression; 'an awkward prose style'; 'a clumsy apology'; 'his cumbersome writing style'; 'if the rumor is true, can anything be more inept than to repeat it now?' .
(adj.) lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance; 'an awkward dancer'; 'an awkward gesture'; 'too awkward with a needle to make her own clothes'; 'his clumsy fingers produced an awkward knot' .
(adj.) difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape; 'an awkward bundle to carry'; 'a load of bunglesome paraphernalia'; 'clumsy wooden shoes'; 'the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl' .
Typed by Avery--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Wanting dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments; not dexterous; without skill; clumsy; wanting ease, grace, or effectiveness in movement; ungraceful; as, he was awkward at a trick; an awkward boy.
(a.) Not easily managed or effected; embarrassing.
(a.) Perverse; adverse; untoward.
Typed by Howard
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Unskilful, bungling, unhandy, maladroit, inapt, without dexterity.[2]. Unwieldy, unmanageable, inconvenient, unfit, lumbering.[3]. Uncouth, unrefined, unpolished, uncourtly, rude, rough, clumsy, coarse, wooden, inelegant, ungainly, untoward, ungraceful, stiff, constrained, uneasy, rustic, boorish, clownish, loutish, gawky, lubberly, slouching.
Edited by Cary
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Ungainly, clownish, clumsy, maladroit, unhandy, uncouth, rough, boorish,bungling, gawky
ANT:Neat, clever, dexterous, skilful, adroit, handy
Checker: Lucy
Definition
adj. clumsy: ungraceful: embarrassed: difficult to deal with: (Shak.) unfavourable: (obs.) froward.—adj. Awk′wardish.—adv. Awk′wardly clumsily embarrassingly dangerously.—n. Awk′wardness.
Edited by Jacqueline
Examples
- Had you been rustic, clownish, awkward, I should have been content. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Their situation was awkward enough; but _hers_ she thought was still worse. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- I see you are accustomed to wearing kid gloves--but some gentlemen are so awkward about putting them on. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I only know he is a very foolish vain fellow, and put my dear little girl into a very painful and awkward position last night. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- As for his own inadequate English, he was much too awkward to try it at all. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Criminology (to use an awkward word) is finding a human center. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- I felt I was so awkward, she replied, that I made up my mind to be improved in that respect at all events and to learn to dance. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- What made you sit in such an awkward position? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Fred felt an awkward movement of the heart; he had not thought of desk-work; but he was in a resolute mood, and not going to shrink. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Don't cry, he said, awkward not only from the load. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- It was an awkward corner. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- It is an awkward meeting, said she; but such is my fortune. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- He falters an awkward excuse or two for his failure. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- I have advised a prodigious number of clients, and have dealt with some exceedingly awkward difficulties, in my time. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I gave them an undertaking on which they sent down your discharge; it's very awkward, my dear Sir; what will you do? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- He seems a very silent, awkward, bashful lad, said Miss Crawley to Mr. Pitt. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- It may have been the fault of the circumstances, which were awkward at the very least. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- It is always awkward doing business with an alias. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- I am only at an awkward turning. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Awkward enough, I'm sure. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I fearI am an awkward fool: I must manage badly in some way, for where I wish to please, it seems I don't please. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- She is much annoyed at her awkward position. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I think, sir,' said Mortimer, breaking the awkward silence with his airy self-possession, 'that you did me the honour to mention my name? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Everyone appeared to feel that a parting of that sort was an awkward thing, and that the nearer it approached, the more awkward it was. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- For instance, consider how few and comparatively awkward were the mechanical means before this century. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- She gave him a low, grave bow when he left, and he felt more awkward and self-conscious in every limb than he had ever done in all his life before. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Emma said it would be awkward; Mrs. Weston was in distress about the supper; and Mr. Woodhouse opposed it earnestly, on the score of health. Jane Austen. Emma.
- He could not well negotiate the trees with his awkward burden, but he kept to the trails, and so made fairly good time. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- It was a very awkward moment; and the countenance of each shewed that it was so. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Irritable he was; one heard thatas he apostrophized with vehemence the awkward squad under his orders. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
Edited by Jacqueline