different between gawky vs mawky

English

Etymology

gawk +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????ki/

  Rhymes: -??ki

Adjective

gawky (comparative gawkier, superlative gawkiest)

1. Awkward, ungainly; lacking grace or dexterity in movement.
   • 2009, Appalachian Children's Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, McFarland (?ISBN), page 77:

     The “gawky” illustrations look as though they may have been done by Belva Jean herself (Bulletin, Mar. 1989).

   • 2020, Ann H. Gabhart, An Appalachian Summer, Revell (?ISBN)

     The woman had barely come up to Seth's shoulder. Petite with curly blonde hair and a dimpled smile. Nothing at all like Francine with her plain brown hair and hazel eyes. Just looking at the woman's picture had made her feel tall and gawky.

2. (Yorkshire, West Riding) left-handed

Synonyms

• gauche, ungraceful

Translations

Noun

gawky (plural gawkies)

1. An awkward, ungainly person.
   • 1870, Punch, volume 58, page 198:

     Let not the inconveniently tall, the gawkies, the Maypoles, despair.

English

Etymology

From mawk +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [m??ki]

  Rhymes: -??ki

Adjective

mawky (comparative mawkier, superlative mawkiest)

1. (Northern England, Appalachia) Maggoty, full of maggots.
   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 130:

     What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as this flesh. This mawky wormbent tabernacle.

Related terms

• mawk