Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make (a person) look like a fool or gawk; puzzle.
- noun A cuckoo.
- noun A stupid fellow; a gawk. See
gawk , 2.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To make a, booby of one); to stupefy.
- noun (Zoöl.) The European cuckoo; -- called also gawky.
- noun A simpleton; a gawk or gawky.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Northern England, Scotland a
cuckoo - noun a
fool
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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_Durak_, -- a "ninny" or "gowk" -- is sent to take care of the children of
Russian Fairy Tales A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore William Ralston Shedden Ralston 1858
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The Scotch employ the term "gowk" to express a fool in general, but more especially an April fool; and among them the practice which we have described is called
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GOWKED, from "gowk," to stand staring and gaping like a fool.
Every Man in His Humor Ben Jonson 1605
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Thus "hunting the gowk" is to send someone on a fool's errand.
April 1st -- Feast of Fools Joanna Waugh 2009
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Thus "hunting the gowk" is to send someone on a fool's errand.
Archive 2009-03-01 Joanna Waugh 2009
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I looked at the Bailie, who acknowledged, in a whisper, “that the gowk had some reason for singing, ance in the year.”
Rob Roy 2005
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He loved all Jenny's children deeply-especially Ian, the wee gowk whose mixture of foolishness and pigheaded courage reminded him so much of himself at that age.
Drums of Autumn Gabaldon, Diana 1997
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When I heard her knock, I soared from the chair where I had been grinding at return-trip calculations, hit my knee on the desk, and in the pain swore at myself for a lubberly old gowk.
Explorations ANDERSON, Poul 1981
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All the gowk in him came uppermost; he did not know what he was doing; he put the Bible awkwardly on the book-board in front of him, and it, too, slid to the floor with a noise even more alarming than that of the rolling sweet.
Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure Neil Munro
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Leevie was makin 'a gowk o' ye to gar ye hang oot signals for her auld jo.
Doom Castle Neil Munro
bilby commented on the word gowk
Old Norse - cuckoo. May also be remnant in regional dialects of English.
February 4, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word gowk
Also golk. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
May 20, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word gowk
A gowk's-storm referred to "some days of tempestuous weather which is believed by the peasantry to take place periodically with the visit of the cuckoo in April." --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
May 20, 2011