mawkish

[ maw-kish ]

/ ˈmɔ kɪʃ /

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See synonyms for: mawkish / mawkishness on Thesaurus.com

adjective

characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.

having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.

OTHER WORDS FOR mawkish

1 sentimental, teary.

See synonyms for mawkish on Thesaurus.com

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Origin of mawkish

1660–70; obsolete mawk maggot (late Middle English <Old Norse mathkr maggot) + -ish¹. See maggot

OTHER WORDS FROM mawkish

mawk·ish·ly, adverbmawk·ish·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use mawkish in a sentence

If you deny them to the latter, all you get is poverty of ideas, and morbidity, and mawkishness.
Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton, B. A. Of Trinity College, Cambridge|Arthur Christopher Benson
Dickens's sentiment seldom rings perfectly true; too often it is sharped to flippancy, or flatted to mawkishness.
Washington Irving|Henry W. Boynton
His Endymion, 1818, though disfigured by mawkishness and by some affectations of manner, was rich in promise.
From Chaucer to Tennyson|Henry A. Beers
There were few tears and less mawkishness when the battalions moved out from their home towns on the long trail.
The Story of the Great War, Volume VIII (of VIII)|various

The ladies, watching him, seemed by their eyes to condone the mawkishness of the demonstration which had tempted him.
The Market-Place|Harold Frederic

British Dictionary definitions for mawkish

mawkish

/ (ˈmɔːkɪʃ) /

adjective

falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way

nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc

Derived forms of mawkish

mawkishly, 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

mawkish

OTHER WORDS FOR mawkish

Origin of mawkish

OTHER WORDS FROM mawkish

Words related to mawkish

How to use mawkish in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for mawkish

Derived forms of mawkish

Word Origin for mawkish