The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gowk \Gowk\, v. t. [See Gawk.]
To make a, booby of one); to stupefy. [Obs.]
--B. Jonson.
Gowk \Gowk\, n. [See Gawk.] (Zo["o]l.)
The European cuckoo; -- called also gawky.
A simpleton; a gawk or gawky.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"cuckoo," early 14c., from Old Norse gaukr, from Proto-Germanic *gaukoz (cognates: Old English geac, Old High German gouh). Meaning "fool" attested from c.1600.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context Northern England Scotland English) A cuckoo. 2 A fool. vb. To make foolish; to stupefy.
Wikipedia
Gowk (, also Romanized as Govak) is a village in Howmeh Rural District, in the Central District of Bam County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 14, in 4 families.
Usage examples of "gowk".
Lord, what a sarcophagus I am, what a zany, what a gaby, what a doodle, what a dizzard, what a hoddy-doddy, what a tom-noddy, what a dunderpate, what a jobber-nowl, what a gowk!
I hope some time before we hear the gowk, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Kilmarnock: when I intend we shall have a gill between us, in a mutchkin stoup.
There he sits, -the illiterate, ill-deedy gowk, next to the Admiral's secretary.