[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
† 1. Untowardness, perversity. Obs.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 189. And to pitch upon two or more best times, for a thing to begin in, is to pitch upon one of the worser kinds of awkwardness.
2. Lack of skill or dexterity; clumsiness.
a. 1770. Miss Talbot, Lett., etc. (1809), I. 31. With all my awkwardness of making speeches.
1848. Lytton, Harold, IV. iv. Tostig laughed scornfully at Harold’s awkwardness.
3. Awkward manner or appearance; lack of ease and grace; inelegance.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 37. A kind of aukwardness in the Italians.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., I. iii. 89. The aukwardness that is apt to adhere to young persons who are confined at home.
1815. Scott, Guy M., iii. A voice whose harshness corresponded with the awkwardness of his figure.
4. Awkward circumstance or feeling; inconvenience, embarrassment, unpleasantness.
1788. Pitt, in G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 85. The awkwardness of having Sir Joseph Yorke the companion of his honours.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. xii. 155. They feel the painfulness of rebuking another, and … the awkwardness of it.
1883. Black, Shandon Bells, xxvii. [Her] pleasant humour … dispersed these awkwardnesses.
