cornball

[kawrn-bawl]

noun

1. popcorn rolled into a ball and flavored with molasses or caramel.

2. Informal.

   1. a person who indulges in clichés or sentimentality.

   2. a country bumpkin; hick.

adjective

1. Informal.,  corny.

cornball

/ ˈkɔːnˌbɔːl /

noun

1. a person given to mawkish or unsophisticated behaviour

adjective

1. another word for corny

Word History and Origins

Origin of cornball¹

1835–45, corn ¹ + ball ¹; cornball defs. 2, 3 influenced by slang sense of corn. screwball, oddball

Word History and Origins

Origin of cornball¹

C20: from corn ball a sweet consisting of a ball of popcorn and molasses

Example Sentences

The show can border on the cornball; the characters are the sort you might have seen in the sort of dramas popular in 1868.

From Los Angeles Times

For all its emotionality, the dialogue can be a little flat, a little stiff, a little cornball.

From Los Angeles Times

The video monitors went their own crazy way, whether unmusically flipping from close-ups of fingers and lips or attempting surreal cornball special effects.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s intellectual, philosophical, sentimental, even cornball.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s in the series’ DNA to be a little cornball, and that there’s nothing overtly fancy or stylish in the production reflects the sort of nonliterary literature from which it springs.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• archetypal 
• characteristic 
• common 
• customary 
• ordinary 
• prototypical 
• stereotypic www.thesaurus.com
• stock 
• traditional 
• typical 
• usual