gooey
Americanadjective
-
gooier,
comparative
-
gooiest
superlative
-
like or covered with goo; sticky; viscid.
-
Informal. extremely sentimental or emotionally effusive.
adjective
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sticky, soft, and often sweet
-
oversweet and sentimental
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gooey
Explanation
Gooey things are drippy and soft, as well as sticky. Your very favorite dessert might be a huge, melty, gooey hot fudge sundae. Few things are more annoying than stepping on something gooey on the sidewalk, or getting a gooey piece of gum stuck in your hair. Gooey candy, likewise, might taste delicious but get stuck in your teeth. The informal gooey is the perfect way to describe these gummy, tacky substances, and it comes from American-coined slang, from goo, probably a shortened form of the now-obsolete burgoo, meaning "thick porridge."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Resident Evil” might be his most playful — and gooey — film yet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Myxas glutinosa gets its name from the gooey mantle that covers its extremely delicate, gold-flecked brown shell.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
At Lumpia City, look for crisp lumpia in playful flavors like ube butter banana French toast, which won a Sporkie in 2025, or pizza stuffed with gooey cheese, pepperoni and sausage.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
"One day I realized -- if this polymer is so gooey and so soft, why don't I just keep breaking the polymer chains down to smaller segments?" said Liu.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
Squatting beside a blackened tin pot outside the woman’s hut, I ate burned rice, crispy and gooey.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
Other changes to McDonald’s burgers included softer buns and gooier cheese, the company said.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
The more cheese you add, the denser and gooier your mac and cheese will be.
From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2021
The musical ends on a gooier note, as the couple takes in a glistening sunrise.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 18, 2017
Taking seats on a table under a linden tree, we ordered crepes, made with nutty buckwheat flour, as well as the slightly gooier local equivalent, called palacinky, cooked from plain wheat flour.
From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2011
Oil turned the bone-black upon him into a thick, sticky goo which instantly gathered more bone-black to become thicker, stickier, and gooier.
From The Ambulance Made Two Trips by Murray Leinster
Each day, I walk to Belize Chocolate Company and get the gooiest brownie I’ve ever eaten.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 3, 2016
It is pine tar, the gooiest, stickiest, filthiest stuff you ever touched.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2014
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
