mawkish
adjective
characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
mawkishness
-
a word derived from
mawkish.
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.
I thought it could fall into mawkishness, and I was a little concerned each time I turned the page.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
But it’s Fraser’s smart, humane, vulnerable performance that too often seems trapped, in this case by a film whose mawkishness so oppressively weighs him down.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 20, 2022
But the death of a child, generally treated with mawkishness, is handled here with riveting creepiness — not to mention a hint of bad taste.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2020
But where the execution of those storylines has garnered some criticism for moments of mawkishness or overwrought dialogue, it’s more successful in its honest depiction of cancer—or, at least, one specific cancer story.
From Time ● Nov. 10, 2015
In such a shape the patriotic instinct may tend in natures weaker than Bolingbroke's to mawkishness or sentimentality.
From Shakespeare and the Modern Stage with Other Essays by Sir Sidney Lee
