Dictionary.com
definitions

mawkish

[maw-kish]
||
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mawkish ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.

RELATED CONTENT

Lexical Investigations: Sentimental
Sentimental, a word intrinsically tied to Romanticism, entered English in the mid-eighteenth century, about 50 years before the Romantic era was in full swing. Scholars officially date the Romantic period from around 1800 to 1850, with the publication of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798 marking the palpable beginning of the era. In 1800, Wordsworth published a new edition of Lyrical Ballads, this time including …
READ MORE

RELATED WORDS

mushy, gooey, sloppy, cloying, sappy, maudlin, teary, feeble, nauseating, romantic, sickening, bathetic, gushy, schmaltzy, gushing, lovey-dovey

Origin of mawkish

1660–70; obsolete mawk maggot (late Middle English < Old Norse mathkr maggot) + -ish1. See maggot
Related formsmawk·ish·ly, adverbmawk·ish·ness, noun

Synonyms for mawkish

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mawkish ON THESAURUS.COM
1. sentimental, teary.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mawkish

Contemporary Examples of mawkish

Historical Examples of mawkish

  • What a fool, what a weak, mawkish, insipid fool he had made of himself!

    Spring Street

    James H. Richardson

  • For mawkish, sentimental religion the Count had an honest contempt.

  • There was no mawkish sentiment—no melancholy in his make-up.

    Robert Toombs

    Pleasant A. Stovall

  • It's all splendid and barbaric; no mawkish sentiment about it.

    Peking Dust

    Ellen N. La Motte

  • This is no time for trifling, nor for mawkish sentimentality.

    Theft

    Jack London

British Dictionary definitions for mawkish

mawkish

adjective

falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way
nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc
Derived Formsmawkishly, adverbmawkishness, noun

Word Origin for mawkish

C17: from obsolete mawk maggot + -ish
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper