Awkwardness
['ɔːkwədnəs]
Definition
(noun.) trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape; 'the movers cursed the unwieldiness of the big piano'.
(noun.) the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment).
(noun.) the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant.
(noun.) the quality of an embarrassing situation; 'he sensed the awkwardness of his proposal'.
(noun.) unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training.
Typist: Marietta--From WordNet
Examples
- She felt no awkwardness; she had too much the habits of society for that. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- You don't in the least know how to do it; but I'll overlook your awkwardness in consideration of your feelings. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- In his seat he had nothing of the awkwardness of the convent, but displayed the easy and habitual grace of a well-trained horseman. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The cue was still in my hand, and I went on knocking the balls about, to take off the awkwardness of the thing. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- They hated their inferiors' humility or gratitude or awkwardness. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The good-by was only a part of the awkwardness he felt about the meeting. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- As to your foolishness and awkwardness, my dear Fanny, believe me, you never have a shadow of either, but in using the words so improperly. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- His English habit, pride, awkwardness perhaps, had prevented him from saying more. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- When a conversation has taken a wrong turn for us, we only get farther and farther into the swamp of awkwardness. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Ladislaw felt the awkwardness of asking for more last words. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- My situation, my foolishness and awkwardness. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Awkwardness you mean, Jane. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- They accepted them with native awkwardness. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Nor did his blushes and awkwardness take away from it: she was pleased with these healthy tokens of the young gentleman's ingenuousness. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Many vain solicitudes would be preventedmany awkwardnesses smoothed by it. Jane Austen. Emma.
Edited by Horace