1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvii. The crude gawkiness of the raw girl he has drifted into marrying.
Gawking, subs. (colloquial).—Loitering and staring; gathering hayseed (q.v.).
Gawky, subs. (colloquial).—An awkward booby; a fool. ‘Now squire gawky’ = a challenge to a clumsy lout. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
1686–1758. Ramsay, Poems, ii., 299. Or, gentle born ye be; but youths in love you’re but a gawky.
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, Act ii., Sc. 2. Crab. Yes, and she is a curious being to pretend to be censorious—an awkward gawky, without any one good point under heaven.
1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, ii., ch. 18. Great, long, slab-sided gawkys from the country.
1878. C. H. Wall, tr. Molière, ii., 197. Our big gawky of a viscount.
Adj. (colloquial).—Lanky; awkward; stupid.
1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i., 1. Under the form of a gawky country boy I will be an eye-witness of my servants’ behaviour.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xlviii. Even for his cousin Samuel Newcome, a gawky youth with an eruptive countenance, Barnes had appropriate words of conversation.