mawkish
Americanadjective
-
characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
- Synonyms:
- teary, sentimental
-
having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.
adjective
-
falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way
-
nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of mawkish
1660–70; obsolete mawk maggot ( late Middle English < Old Norse mathkr maggot) + -ish 1. See maggot
Explanation
Mawkish means excessively sentimental or so sappy it's sickening. Which is how you'd describe two lovebirds gushing over each other or your grandma’s cooing and cheek pinches. The adjective mawkish came into vogue in the 1600s. Oddly enough, it's rooted in the Middle English word maggot and originally meant “sickly or nauseated.” But mawkish eventually evolved to mean something so overly sentimental it makes you sick. It's not a word you hear very often these days, but feel free to use it to describe really lame love poems and annoyingly mushy Valentine's Day cards.
Vocabulary lists containing mawkish
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Sickly Sweet Treats: Sappy and Insincere Valentine Words
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For Grilled Cheese Day, Vocab with a Twist
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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.
Mawkish flashbacks to Lilith’s late mother are an unsuccessful attempt at building an emotional anchor, coming in too late and with little context.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2024
Mawkish, obvious and manipulative, “The Son” is, quite simply, a disappointment, from its pat setup to its equally false — and, quite frankly, cruel — resolution.
From Washington Post • Jan. 18, 2023
Mawkish to be sure, but within months it went gold on the charts.
From New York Times • May 28, 2010
Mawkish, mawk′ish, adj. loathsome, disgusting, as anything beginning to breed mawks or maggots.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweetsour of her spittle.
From Ulysses by Joyce, James
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.
