What's the difference between awkward and gawky?

Awkward


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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But she has struggled – quite awkwardly – to articulate her evolution on same-sex marriage, and has left environmental activists wondering what her exact energy policy is.
  • (2) Once installed, the alliance will become an awkward, obstructionist presence, committed, in the words of the Northern League's Matteo Salvini, to "a different Europe, based on work and peoples and not in the one based on servitude to the euro and banks, ready to let us die from immigration and unemployment".
  • (3) There is no getting around the awkward fact that in Bristol West Stephen Williams represents a constituency of 82,503 while his neighbouring Labour MP in Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, speaks for 69,347 constituents.
  • (4) Our team of reporters have spent the last week on an intensive bikram yoga course in order to get themselves into the rather awkward position of having their ears to the ground, their eyes to the skies and their fingers on the pulse.
  • (5) Jesús Navas played a one-two with Touré down the right and from his awkward cross the England squad goalkeeper fumbled the ball inside his six-yard area from where Fernando scored with an overhead kick as dextrous as it was surprising.
  • (6) It's straight at Stockdale, though the keeper needs two attempts to get the ball under control in these awkward conditions.
  • (7) And then the ball is in Caballero's hands.At the other end, Courtois beats away an awkward, bouncing drive from long range.
  • (8) That is an awkward, indeed risky, time to be contemplating takeoff.
  • (9) Despite his insistence that comedy should be colour-blind, Amos admits black audiences prefer the black circuit, where "you know the material isn't going to be racist or make you feel awkward, where you feel like you belong".
  • (10) And yet for all his anti-establishment credentials, Mr Galloway is as practised as any of his New Labour enemies at squirming away from awkward questions.
  • (11) Our calculations show that the biological inactive O-methyl-delta 8-THC orients with its long axis parallel to the lipid acyl chains, whereas the psychoactive cannabinoids assume "awkward" orientations in which the hydroxyl groups are pointing towards the bilayer interface, presumably to maximize the amphipathic interaction with the membrane.
  • (12) Why have they not done away with their own bodies and hair and all their awkward woman-type things?
  • (13) And I said: 'Look, man, I just got here, if it's OK, I don't wanna just walk in and take a picture – it'd make me feel awkward.'
  • (14) The SBS, in association with fluoroscopy, permits simple surgical implementation with accurate localization and extraction of foreign bodies, with the elimination of awkward, unpredictable, and time consuming retrieval techniques.
  • (15) What some people saw in this mistake was again a cultural bias against black art, unconscious though it may be This is why this mix-up mattered more than a bit of onstage awkwardness.
  • (16) April 16, 2014 The hesitancy – or unwillingness – of Ukrainian troops to use their weapons has produced multiple awkward confrontations with civilian crowds Wednesday, including one in Pchyolkino south of Kratamorsk, which seems still to be unresolved after an hours-long standoff.
  • (17) Sitting opposite her as she eats croissants and fixes on espresso it is hard to equate the immaculate perfection of Guillem the performer, in bobbed wig and suspenders last night, with the awkwardly engaging and somewhat bed-headed Guillem in skinny jeans and T-shirt this morning.
  • (18) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump and Theresa May awkwardly hold hands at White House
  • (19) Even that took a finely weighted pass and an awkward stretching first touch from two very fine technicians.
  • (20) What's more, his genial stiffness and shy self-awareness give him a kind of awkward dignity compared to the preening smugness of Cruz.

Gawky


Definition:

  • (superl.) Foolish and awkward; clumsy; clownish; as, gawky behavior. -- n. A fellow who is awkward from being overgrown, or from stupidity, a gawk.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But later, by the time he was selling out theatres for his live shows, that gawky guile and snotty cheek had morphed into relentless anxiety and slapstick self-consciousness.
  • (2) But the gawky Furth, who specialised in nervous, oddball characters, began to get lots of work on television at the beginning of the 60s, something which continued into the 90s.
  • (3) One thing you'll soon realise is that this new generation of superstar YouTubers are not just gawky kids sitting in their bedrooms with a webcam.
  • (4) He’s not really gawky, although he will laugh his way through anything.
  • (5) Core team Groomed, drilled and polished by a team of advisers, including former TV producer Thea Rogers, the chancellor has replaced the squeaky-voiced gawkiness of his early days in the job with a carefully constructed image.
  • (6) He has all of Maguire's innate intelligence and endearing gawky awkwardness, as well as one crucial advantage over his predecessor – as a former gymnast, Garfield can do his own backflips.
  • (7) What delights the women most is anyone with a “past”, and when this gawky, evangelical new girl confesses that she “thinks” she is married, but isn’t quite sure, they draw closer and hold their breath.
  • (8) The good news is that she dances far better than that gawky teen shuffle of "Joe le Taxi"; the bad news is that… well, there's no bad news.
  • (9) She seems gawky and guileless, a galumphing work in progress; “more goose than swan” in the view of New York Times critic AO Scott .
  • (10) Then in 1968 he met Gates, another gawky kid who was also spending all his free time hunched over the school's first computer, an ASR-33 Teletype model .
  • (11) He is joined at the podium by director Danny Boyle; by gawky Dev Patel, preening Freida Pinto and by the pint-sized child actors flown out from Mumbai to attend the event.