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
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.
Morgan’s flair for the mawkish would be fine, and maybe even interesting, if he didn’t make the mistake of making the country music industry piles and piles of money.
From Salon • May 16, 2025
If that line of reasoning is too mawkish and bleeding-heart for your taste, Worsley makes a more pragmatic argument for a generous, welcoming immigration policy, one unsentimentally rooted in cold dollars and cents.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2025
If that leaves you expecting mawkish sentiment and introspective wallowing, you've not been paying attention.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2025
But two more ballets remained to be seen: The mawkish, melodramatic “Petite Mort” by Jiri Kylian and the parade of tutus and tendus that make up “Études” by Harald Lander.
From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2023
Her soliloquies mawkish, her sentiments maudlin, malaise dripped like a fever from her pores.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
