gowk

English

Etymology

From the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊk/

Noun

gowk (plural gowks)

1. (Northern England, Scotland) A cuckoo.
2. A fool.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Old Mortality:

     "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper.

   • 1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:

     God has sent me gowks for secretaries.

   • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 303:

     `You daft great gowk, puttin' yerself in the way of harm after all this time out of a war.'

Verb

gowk (third-person singular simple present gowks, present participle gowking, simple past and past participle gowked)

1. To make foolish; to stupefy.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)