Noun: gawk
Sample Sentences
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His morning prey he craveth; So crowed the gawk of carrion⁶ […] (6) Gawk of carrion = [kenning for] raven. [1898, Ari Thorgilsson, The Book of the Settlement of Iceland, page 105:]
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Some sneakingly fly watching, as the hawk; Or, as a Cuckoo, grow to limb as a gawk. [1910, John Bunyan Robinson, Bird Or Feather Convention ..., page 11:]
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I WONDER if you know the cuckoos. […] In Scotlad the popular name for the cuckoo is "the gawk," which means fool. […] But our American cuckoos are a long way from gawks. Indeed many farmers consider them fine weather prophets. [1916, Inez N. McFee, “The Cuckoos”, in Home and School Visitor, page 276:]
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[…] threw into a market crate regretfully a somewhat gawky, long-legged youngster that was otherwise exceptionally fine. A neighbour rescued the gawk from the market crate and the two birds as cocks competed in a local show. The "gawk" won. Why? […] the gawk [appeared] of good station. [1923, The New Reliable Poultry Journal, page 640:]
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[…] cuckoos proper have fourteen cervical vertebrae and no feather crest. The ejection urge is well developed in them.
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The gawks [:] There are three genera with thirteen species of gawks. A. THICK-BILLED CUCKOOS (Pachycoccyx) have only one species[…] [1972, Bernhard Grzimek, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Birds I-III:]
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A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards. [1855, Thomas Carlyle, The Prinzenraub, Westminster Review:]
Nouns inflected like gawk
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac.
2. Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock. See: Middle English Nouns '
gowke', Old Norse Nouns '
gaukr', Swedish Nouns '
gök', German Nouns '
Gauch', Old English Nouns '
ġēac', French Nouns '
gauche', English Nouns '
gawky'.