| 单词 | awkward |
| 释义 | awk·ward 1. obsolete a. < an awkward pride in my nature — Henry Fielding > b. < with awkward winds and with sore tempests driven — Christopher Marlowe > 2. a. < she was too awkward with a needle to make her own clothes > b. < the form of writing used … was extremely crude and was confined chiefly to expressing thoughts by means of awkward pictures — R.W.Murray > 3. a. < she had large feet and her walk was awkward and ungainly > b. < how long, tall, quick, strong, or awkward in looks he was — Carl Sandburg > 4. < an awkward piece of writing > < a title which is extremely awkward in English — R.A.Hall b.1911 > 5. a. < he hesitated, awkward and bashful, shifted his weight from one leg to the other — Jack London > b. < sometimes his quick brain runs him into awkward situations — John Ennis > < spared her from explanations and professions which it was exceedingly awkward to give — Jane Austen > 6. < attempts to combine … a single picture out of these awkward and contradictory tests — Havelock Ellis > < the dykes and drains make these roads so very awkward — Dorothy Sayers > 7. < the guide let himself down an awkward cliff > Synonyms: < you're as awkward, McGovery, as a bull calf — Anthony Trollope > It often implies shyness and self-consciousness < I, sitting in silence, felt awkward; but I was too shy to break into any of the groups that seemed absorbed in their own affairs — W.S.Maugham > It may apply to an object that is not easily handled or dexterously managed < awkward round boats > to a situation or action likely to cause embarrassment or discomfiture < an easy and welcome solution to an otherwise awkward problem — W.L.Sperry > or to modes of expression that are cumbersome or confused < an awkward sentence > clumsy may denote a person or an animal that is blundering or lacking in skill or grace and often describes one who is grotesque and clattering from awkwardness, especially as an inherent tendency < a clumsy bear > < a clumsy and timid horseman — W.M.Thackeray > It may also denote a person or object that is heavy or unwieldy < the clumsy machinery of the plot — T.S.Eliot > < a clumsy horse > inept, which applies to both persons and their actions or products, is the strongest word of those here compared, for it suggests total failure < an inept mechanic > < an inept administrator > < an inept translation > and carries a suggestion of futility or absurdity < by what inept logic must we bow to our creation if it be a machine and spurn it as “unreal” if it happens to be a painting or a poem? — Lewis Mumford > maladroit may describe remarks or actions that are out of place, ill-timed, or tasteless and that cause embarrassment or resentment, or persons responsible for them < Lloyd George, though a brilliant statesman, was often a maladroit polictician — Malcolm Thomson > gauche also describes a person or something he says or does and often refers to a general tendency to be ill at ease from shyness, inexperience, or lack of breeding, and to increase one's discomfiture by inappropriate acts or remarks < these gauche characters just don't know the rules of the game — John Farrelly > < that shy, rather gauche fellow, slinking nervously about the corridors — H.J.Laski > ungainly indicates marked physical gracelessness often due to excessive size < she had long ungainly limbs and was very awkward in the use of them — Anthony Trollope > lumbering describes one that is large and ponderous, formidable when at rest and moving, if at all, with real or apparent difficulty < so that his slow lumbering plane would not be left behind by the faster bombers — H.L.Merillat > gawky suggests graceless proportions and the self-consciousness often attendant on such an appearance < one of these abrupt, rather gawky women, all hands and feet — Valentine Williams > |
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