Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To stare or gape stupidly. synonym: gaze.
  • noun An awkward or clumsy person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cuckoo. [Scotch and North. Eng.] — 2. A stupid, awkward fellow; a fool; a simpleton; a booby. Also gawky.
  • Foolish.
  • To act like a gawk; go about awkwardly; look like a fool.

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

  • noun A cuckoo.
  • noun A simpleton; a booby; a gawky.
  • intransitive verb To act like a gawky.
  • intransitive verb To stare with empty-minded fascination; to stare stupidly; to gape; -- usually used with at.

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

  • noun a cuckoo
  • noun a fool
  • noun a simpleton, stupid or clumsy person.
  • verb To stare or gape stupidly
  • verb To stare conspicuously.

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

  • noun an awkward stupid person
  • verb look with amazement; look stupidly

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps alteration (influenced by gawk, awkward person) of obsolete gaw, to gape, from Middle English gawen, from Old Norse gā, to heed. N., probably from English dialectal gawk, left (as in gawk hand, left hand).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, from Old Norse gaukr ("cuckoo"), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac. More at yeke.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A Middle-Appalachian Americanism, since late 1800s, possibly misconstruing French "gauche," and leading to use of adj gawky for a person or process that is uncoordinated or awkward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps from Old Norse gá ("to heed").

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Examples

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  • Ebenezer and the farmer, gawking up, saw the tree descending on them and they were petrified with terror. Both realized they would rather not die at this particular time.

    - William Steig, Farmer Palmer's Wagon Ride

    September 29, 2008