释义 |
awkward /ˈɔːkwəd /adjective1Causing difficulty; hard to do or deal with: some awkward questions the wheelbarrow can be awkward to manoeuvre...- Had staff consulted with the minister and agreed to feign communication breakdown so as not to have to deal with my awkward questions?
- He dealt with an awkward question on devolution with the surety and intelligence you would expect from a man who refused to be bullied into Vietnam.
- O'Brien's hectic schedule may have been cast aside this weekend as he prepares to deal with many awkward questions, which may include some of the following.
Synonyms difficult, tricky British informal fiddly cumbersome, unwieldy, unhandy informal a devil vulgar slang a bugger, a bastard rare cumbrous, lumbersome inconvenient, difficult, inappropriate, inopportune, unfortunate archaic unseasonable 1.1Deliberately unreasonable or uncooperative: you’re being damned awkward!...- We did not want to be awkward and put any unreasonable obstructions in the way.
- I was asked to enter some of my favourite music, so being deliberately awkward, I entered four of my less well known favourites, first among them being Lucy Woodward.
- Everyone wants peace, no one wants war, and if you aren't prepared to march then you're either gung ho or deliberately awkward.
Synonyms unreasonable, uncooperative, unhelpful, difficult, annoying, obstructive, unaccommodating, refractory, disobliging, contrary, perverse, tiresome, exasperating, trying; stubborn, obstinate; Scottish thrawn informal cussed, pesky British informal bloody-minded, bolshie North American informal balky archaic contumacious, froward rare renitent, pervicacious 2Causing or feeling uneasy embarrassment or inconvenience: he had put her in a very awkward position she felt awkward alone with him...- I'd like to encourage some interactivity in this blog, so if anyone would like to email me with their awkward or embarrassing moments, I can post them here anonymously.
- Even though she had never really cared to notice, the air was damp and the dripping coming from above made the silence very uneasy and awkward.
- There were a few uneasy seconds of awkward silence, everyone looking at Christine with apprehension.
Synonyms embarrassing, uncomfortable, unpleasant, delicate, ticklish, tricky, sensitive, problematic, problematical, troublesome, perplexing, thorny, vexatious; humiliating, compromising informal sticky, dicey, hairy, cringeworthy, cringe-making British informal dodgy North American informal gnarly embarrassed, self-conscious, uncomfortable, ill at ease, uneasy, tense, nervous, edgy, unrelaxed, strained rare unquiet 3Not smooth or graceful; ungainly: Luther’s awkward movements impeded his progress...- That most people walk in an ungraceful, ungainly and awkward manner with a forward inclination of the body does not mean that it is the normal way of walking.
- Now she faked her clumsy and awkward movements, often purposely stumbling over anything that came her way.
- Kouki could see by his stiff stance and awkward movement that he didn't like him.
Synonyms clumsy, ungainly, uncoordinated, maladroit, graceless, ungraceful, inept, inelegant, unskilful, unhandy, gauche, gawky, gangling, blundering, lumbering, cloddish; wooden, stiff; coltish informal clodhopping, ham-fisted, ham-handed, with two left feet, cack-handed British informal all thumbs, all fingers and thumbs archaic lubberly 3.1Uncomfortable or abnormal: make sure the baby isn’t sleeping in an awkward position...- He stood as straight as he could, which was not very straight, since he spent nearly two hours in an uncomfortable and awkward position.
- As I lay on my side, too choked with inward giggling to move into a less awkward and uncomfortable position, my mother appeared.
- The members did this while crouching-on the floor in a very uncomfortable, awkward position.
OriginLate Middle English (in the sense 'the wrong way round, upside down'): from dialect awk 'backwards, perverse, clumsy' (from Old Norse afugr 'turned the wrong way') + -ward. There used to be a word awk, based on an Old Norse afugr, that meant ‘turned the wrong way round’. So awkward meant ‘in an awk direction’, ‘in the wrong direction, in reverse order, upside down’. It could be applied, for instance, to an animal that was on its back and was unable to get up. The meaning ‘clumsy or ungainly’ developed in the 16th century, followed by other meanings such as ‘embarrassing’, or ‘difficult to deal with’.
|