mawkish
[maw-kish]
- characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
- having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.
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Origin of mawkish
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
mushygooeysloppycloyingsappymaudlintearyfeeblenauseatingromanticsickeningbatheticgushyschmaltzygushinglovey-doveyExamples from the Web for mawkish
Contemporary Examples
The jibe is off-key too because Wilde himself was hardly immune to the sentimental and even the mawkish.
Historical Examples
What a fool, what a weak, mawkish, insipid fool he had made of himself!
Spring StreetJames H. Richardson
For mawkish, sentimental religion the Count had an honest contempt.
History of the Moravian ChurchJ. E. Hutton
There was no mawkish sentiment—no melancholy in his make-up.
Robert ToombsPleasant A. Stovall
It's all splendid and barbaric; no mawkish sentiment about it.
Peking DustEllen N. La Motte
This is no time for trifling, nor for mawkish sentimentality.
TheftJack London
mawkish
- falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way
- nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc
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Word Origin
C17: from obsolete mawk maggot + -ish
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for mawkish
adj.
1660s, "sickly, nauseated," from Middle English mawke "maggot" (see maggot). Sense of "sickly sentimental" is first recorded 1702. Related: Mawkishly; mawkishness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper