aukwardness

Timidity solicits that mercy which pride is most gratified to grant; the blushes of juvenile shame atone for the deficiencies which cause them; and aukwardness itself, in the unfounded terrors of youth, is perhaps more interesting than grace.

Camilla 2008

The presence of Indiana redoubled the aukwardness of the situation, and her blushes, and the increased lustre of her eyes, did not make the report seem either unwelcome, or perfectly new to her.

Camilla 2008

But the difficulty of finding a suitable situation embarrassed him, and he was disconcerted by the aukwardness of introducing her himself to strangers, whose curiosity would be heightened by a sense of their interest.

The Italian 2004

He spoke to me; and this address from a stranger throwing a blush into my cheeks that still set him wider off the truth, I answered him with an aukwardness and confusion the more apt to impose, as there was really a mixture of the genuine in them.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure 2004

In the 1802 Preface, this thought is preceded by a return to the 1798 Advertisement: "They who have been accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers ... will, no doubt, [here] frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced to inquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to assume that title" (596).

Wordsworth’s Balladry: Real Men Wanted 1999

At the same time, the slow and sonorous solemnity with which, while he bent himself down, he addressed a little thick short-legged boy, contrasted with the boy's aukwardness and awe, could not but excite some ludicrous emotions [948].

Life Of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural aukwardness.

Sense and Sensibility 1811

But whatever might be their blunders and aukwardness, the sagacious Kieft, declared them to be of but little importance — since, as he judiciously observed, one campaign would be of more instruction to them than a hundred parades; for though two-thirds of them might be food for powder, yet such of the other third as did not run away, would become most experienced veterans.

A History of New York 1809

Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced to enquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to assume that title.

Lyrical Ballads 1798 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803

Besides the aukwardness attending such an interview in these circumstances, concealment was necessary to my safety.

Wieland; or the Transformation. An American Tale. 1798