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.

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

All that signaling serves to diminish the impact of a not unanticipated “shock” denouement that strives for poignancy but ultimately flirts with mawkishness.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2022

These public efforts bring authenticity to the play but also permission to explore its frank humanity without mawkishness.

From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2017

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 the Bible the beauty of women is frankly spoken of without prudery or mawkishness as an influence in human affairs.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis by Dods, Marcus