awkward Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite causing inconvenience
    • they arrived at an awkward time
  2. adjective 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
  3. adjective satellite difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape
    clumsy; bunglesome; ungainly.
    • an awkward bundle to carry
    • a load of bunglesome paraphernalia
    • clumsy wooden shoes
    • the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl
  4. adjective satellite not elegant or graceful in expression
    inept; ill-chosen; inapt; clumsy; cumbersome.
    • 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?
  5. adjective satellite hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment
    embarrassing; unenviable; sticky.
    • 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
  6. adjective satellite socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner
    uneasy; ill at ease.
    • awkward and reserved at parties
    • ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know
    • was always uneasy with strangers

WordNet

Awk"ward adjective
Etymology
Awk + -ward.
Definitions
  1. 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.
    And dropped an awkward courtesy. Dryden.
  2. Not easily managed or effected; embarrassing.
    A long and awkward process. Macaulay.
    An awkward affair is one that has gone wrong, and is difficult to adjust. C. J. Smith.
  3. Perverse; adverse; untoward. Obs. "Awkward casualties." "Awkward wind." Shak.
    O blind guides, which being of an awkward religion, do strain out a gnat, and swallow up a cancel. Udall.
    Syn. -- Ungainly; unhandy; clownish; lubberly; gawky; maladroit; bungling; inelegant; ungraceful; unbecoming. -- Awkward, Clumsy, Uncouth. Awkward has a special reference to outward deportment. A man is clumsy in his whole person, he is awkward in his gait and the movement of his limbs. Clumsiness is seen at the first view. Awkwardness is discovered only when a person begins to move. Hence the expressions, a clumsy appearance, and an awkward manner. When we speak figuratively of an awkward excuse, we think of a want of ease and grace in making it; when we speak of a clumsy excuse, we think of the whole thing as coarse and stupid. We apply the term uncouth most frequently to that which results from the want of instruction or training; as, uncouth manners; uncouth language. -- Awk"ward*ly adv. -- Awk"ward*ness, n.

Webster 1913