| / English Dictionary |
AWKWARDNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape
Example:
the movers cursed the unwieldiness of the big piano
Synonyms:
awkwardness; cumbersomeness; unwieldiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):
inconvenience; troublesomeness; worriment (a difficulty that causes anxiety)
Derivation:
awkward (difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)
Synonyms:
awkwardness; clumsiness; gracelessness; stiffness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):
inelegance (the quality of lacking refinement and good taste)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):
woodenness (the quality of being wooden and awkward)
gaucherie; rusticity (the quality of being rustic or gauche)
Derivation:
awkward (socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant
Synonyms:
awkwardness; clumsiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):
bearing; carriage; posture (characteristic way of bearing one's body)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):
gracelessness; ungracefulness (an unpleasant lack of grace in carriage or form or movement or expression)
gawkiness; ungainliness (the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are extremely ungainly and inelegant)
stiffness (the property of moving with pain or difficulty)
Antonym:
gracefulness (beautiful carriage)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The quality of an embarrassing situation
Example:
he sensed the awkwardness of his proposal
Synonyms:
awkwardness; nuisance value
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):
disadvantage (the quality of having an inferior or less favorable position)
Derivation:
awkward (hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training
Synonyms:
awkwardness; clumsiness; ineptitude; ineptness; maladroitness; slowness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):
unskillfulness (a lack of cognitive skill)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):
rustiness (ineptitude or awkwardness as a consequence of age or lack of practice)
Derivation:
awkward (not elegant or graceful in expression)
awkward (lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance)
Context examples:
Now, in this case, I, who am the right owner, lie under two great disadvantages: first, my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great awkwardness, if not with ill-will.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Catherine began to feel something of disappointment—she was tired of being continually pressed against by people, the generality of whose faces possessed nothing to interest, and with all of whom she was so wholly unacquainted that she could not relieve the irksomeness of imprisonment by the exchange of a syllable with any of her fellow captives; and when at last arrived in the tea-room, she felt yet more the awkwardness of having no party to join, no acquaintance to claim, no gentleman to assist them.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
His was a false eye, and an easy tongue—a tongue too easy, he judged, for the awkwardness of honest speech.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The first ten minutes had its awkwardness and its emotion.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
My situation, my foolishness and awkwardness.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
If there had not been so much anger, there would have been desperate awkwardness; but their straightforward emotions left no room for the little zigzags of embarrassment.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He stumbled with his old awkwardness after her, and his shoulders swung and lurched perilously.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind—her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty—and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
With these supports, she hoped that the acquaintance between herself and the Crofts, which, with Lady Russell, still resident in Kellynch, and Mary fixed only three miles off, must be anticipated, need not involve any particular awkwardness.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
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