Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An awkward or tactless act, manner, or expression.
  • noun A lack of tact; awkwardness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An awkward action; awkwardness; bungling; clumsiness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An awkward action; clumsiness; boorishness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A socially tactless or awkward act.
  • noun Lack of tact; tactlessness; awkwardness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a socially awkward or tactless act
  • noun the quality of being rustic or gauche

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from gauche, gauche; see gauche.]

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Examples

  • Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today described the behaviour of MPs in Parliament over the issue of increasing their salaries as "gaucherie", saying this gives a wrong impression about those who are in politics.

    Daily News & Analysis 2010

  • A few men suppress coughs, but most people in the room are hard of hearing, so the minor gaucherie passes without notice.

    Jack Kerouac, Republican Party Hero Con Chapman 2011

  • No one has ever accused Trump of being a slave to dignity, but this public quibbling over the size of his bank account raises the bar on gaucherie.

    David Collins: None Dare Call Him Poor 2009

  • Malcolm Turnbull, was to be my morning blast today – but even shades of his amazing gaucherie has failed to make the passing grade.

    Publicity Ivan Donn Carswell 2009

  • Malcolm Turnbull, was to be my morning blast today – but even shades of his amazing gaucherie has failed to make the passing grade.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Ivan Donn Carswell 2009

  • But he has allowed his enemies to represent him as a figure of immense gaucherie, cynicism, and stupidity.

    Mark Miller: Newspaper Swindlers Black and Radler Look Quaint by Today's Standards 2009

  • We've looked the other way at the gaucherie of extreme consumption, spawned by the greatest concentration of wealth since the 1920s.

    To The Rich, From America 2008

  • If anyone has the gaucherie to point out the left's nearly unblemished record of rooting against America, liberals turn around and scream "McCarthyism!"

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • If anyone has the gaucherie to point out the left's nearly unblemished record of rooting against America, liberals turn around and scream "McCarthyism!"

    Hullabaloo 2007

  • At which Sir Charles burst out into a yelling laugh, and made me blush not a little at my gaucherie; for the fact is, seeing him in the condition in which he was, I could not help speculating upon the chance a man of spirit might have with his widow.

    The Memoires of Barry Lyndon 2006

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