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/ˈɑkwərd/ /ˈɔkwərd/ Listen

Awkward

adjective

1.

Causing inconvenience.

2.

Lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance. "An awkward gesture" , "Too awkward with a needle to make her own clothes" , "His clumsy fingers produced an awkward knot"

3.

Difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape. Synonyms: bunglesome, clumsy, ungainly. "A load of bunglesome paraphernalia" , "Clumsy wooden shoes" , "The cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl"

4.

Not elegant or graceful in expression. Synonyms: clumsy, cumbersome, ill-chosen, inapt, inept. "A clumsy apology" , "His cumbersome writing style" , "If the rumor is true, can anything be more inept than to repeat it now?"

5.

Hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment. Synonyms: embarrassing, sticky, unenviable. "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"

6.

Socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner. Synonyms: ill at ease, uneasy. "Ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know" , "Was always uneasy with strangers"

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"Awkward" Quotes from Famous Books

... rocks. He was fortunately the first to perceive the change in the direction of a light breeze which sprang up, and by immediately springing forward on the bowsprit, he succeeded in getting the ship's head round. Her sails soon filled, and she moved out of her awkward position. As upwards of two hundred and fifty Turks were assembled on the rocks above, and fresh men were arriving every moment, there can be no doubt that in a short time the enemy would have brought a piece of artillery to bear on the Themistocles from ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845 • Various

... as he had been to sea all his life, he was sure to manage the vessel properly; and, as he had often said, she was such a tight little sea-boat she would go through anything. Still, we were in a part of the ocean where the tide runs with great force, and when meeting the wind a very awkward sea is beaten up. This made the cutter tumble about in a way I had never known her do before. Everything in the cabin had been securely lashed except a few books and charts. First one came flying out as the vessel rolled over, and hit ...

— A Yacht Voyage Round England • W.H.G. Kingston

... tears on seeing her little hand tremble to such a degree that at times it was difficult for her to reach her mouth. She made use only of her left hand, for her right arm seemed to be fastened to her chest. When she had finished, she almost broke the cup, which she caught again by an awkward movement of ...

— The Dream • Emile Zola

... reasons for starting; but it was considered fairer and more reasonable to assume that he had started in good faith and that the two messengers who had been sent to stop him had not reached him, and to act accordingly. However awkward a predicament he had placed the Johannesburg people in, they accepted a certain moral responsibility for him and his actions and decided to make his safety ...

— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... respect! What on earth do you mean by that nonsense?”—“Yes, but without striking terror and inspiring respect, he (Dthemetri) would never be able to force on the arrangements for my journey, and vossignoria would be kept at Gaza for a month!” This would have been awkward, and certainly I could not deny that poor Dthemetri had succeeded in his odd plan of inspiring respect, for at the very time that this explanation was going on in Italian the Governor seemed more than ever, and more anxiously, disposed to overwhelm ...

— Eothen • A. W. Kinglake

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