What is your definition of the word Awkward?

When mentioned in regards to conversing with another. Curious to see others thoughts on this. Thank you.

ôkwərd

adjective

1. causing difficulty; hard to do or deal with.
"one of the most awkward jobs is painting a ceiling"
synonyms: difficult, tricky; More

2.
causing or feeling embarrassment or inconvenience.
"he had put her in a very awkward situation"
synonyms: embarrassing, uncomfortable, unpleasant, delicate, tricky, problematic, troublesome, thorny;

Next question. :-P LOL!

When you tell a great joke and nobody gets the punchline. So you repeat the joke and still, people don't get it. So then you explain the joke and they say, "Oh yeah... that's funny."

Do you mean between people who know each other, or strangers or both, topaz?

To me the word awkward means a uncomfortable situation, that could be someone admits to something another didn't want to know & finds embarrassing or maybe someone admit they love another & that other person doesn't feel the same ~ to me that would be awkward. Or maybe when someone is hiding something & the other person found out & then the dynamic is weird ~ idk.

Thanks to all who replied.

Breathe123 - It could be for either but I am asking about people who have know one another for years.

Why would someone tell another person - " it's awkward?" I think that is meant to be rude or hurtful, is it not? Especially if when asked "how?" and the person won't divulge why.

I think people say "that was awkward" to try and alleviate the awkwardness, not realizing that addressing it, makes it worse lol.

Yeah, or maybe they say it to fill an awkward silence.... which also has the same effect of just making it worse. I think it really depends on the context, though. It can also be something where the person says it kind of jokingly as a way to actually remove some of that awkward tension. That sometimes actually can work well if it gets the involved parties to laugh.

I think of awkward is someone knowing something that another person they are talking with might not like them knowing, secrets exposed maybe? Also if you are shy lots of things could be awkward too.
Maybe they were trying to make excuses for themselves also and used awkward as their excuse not to be straightforward.

[MENTION=81349]topazlight[/MENTION]

OK ~ I understand what you mean now.

It is rude & hurtful to say that & then not explain, especially if asked to explain. It then seems like it wasn't said by accident. I'd be suspicious of that persons motives if it was me ~ a friend doesn't intentionally try to hurt you.

All of you make great points/comments. Something new occurred that is bothering me at the moment, it was to me almost a sucker punch to my soul, I just don't understand the logic others, I guess. Wish I could discuss it openly but I cannot know if a certain person is reading and if the goal is to hurt, I don't think they need my own confirmation on a good well done. I would like to bounce it off others, if anyone would like to discuss with me I would be willing to share via private message.

Well, no clue what you are talking about, but if you wanted to you could certainly feel free to PM me. I'm always glad to help if/when I can.

I felt awkward when someone wanted more from me than I wanted to give friendship and relationship both... I hate letting others down or hurting someone and so I felt awkward in those situations.

I'll send you a PM before I leave the forum, TheEvilJester and thank you. It's a complicated issue, so apologies if you find it confusing.

Dollhouse, I think that could be it, but it is only a perception not a fact and yet someone persists on thinking a falsehood is the truth when nothing is actually awkward but inside their own mind. It becomes very frustrating and very sad at the same time.

Confusing, no, but infuriating, yes. I think it hits a little too close to home for me, so I really feel for you. Hope I can help, even in some small way. Bottom line, though, if this person deems something awkward the needn't have to be awkward, then that is THEIR problem. They've made it awkward when it didn't have to be, and you certainly didn't deserve that..... so maybe they don't deserve you.