Etymology From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac. Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.
1
A cuckoo; (sometimes by extension) any gawky bird.
His morning prey he craveth; So crowed the gawk of carrion⁶ […] (6) Gawk of carrion = [kenning for] raven.1898, Ari Thorgilsson, The Book of the Settlement of Iceland, page 105:
Some sneakingly fly watching, as the hawk; Or, as a Cuckoo, grow to limb as a gawk.1910, John Bunyan Robinson, Bird Or Feather Convention ..., page 11:
3 more examples
I WONDER if you know the cuckoos. […] In Scotlad the popular name for the cuckoo is "the gawk," which means fool. […] But our American cuckoos are a long way from gawks. Indeed many farmers consider them fine weather prophets.1916, Inez N. McFee, “The Cuckoos”, in Home and School Visitor, page 276:
[…] threw into a market crate regretfully a somewhat gawky, long-legged youngster that was otherwise exceptionally fine. A neighbour rescued the gawk from the market crate and the two birds as cocks competed in a local show. The "gawk" won. Why? […] the gawk [appeared] of good station.1923, The New Reliable Poultry Journal, page 640:
[…] cuckoos proper have fourteen cervical vertebrae and no feather crest. The ejection urge is well developed in them. The gawks [:] There are three genera with thirteen species of gawks. A. THICK-BILLED CUCKOOS (Pachycoccyx) have only one species[…]1972, Bernhard Grzimek, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Birds I-III:
2
A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.
A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards.1855, Thomas Carlyle, The Prinzenraub, Westminster Review: