mawkish

adjective

mawk·​ish ˈmȯ-kish How to pronounce mawkish (audio)
1
: lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste
2
: exaggeratedly or childishly emotional
a mawkish love story
mawkish poetry
mawkishly adverb
mawkishness noun

Did you know?

The Squirming Origins of Mawkish

Mawkish really opens up a can of worms—or maggots, as it were: the word wriggled out from Middle English mawke, meaning “maggot.” Its earliest sense, used in the late 17th century but now obsolete, was synonymous with squeamish (understandable!) but not long after that mawkish was used to describe an unpleasant, nauseating, often sickeningly sweet flavor. It’s no surprise that a figurative sense of mawkish, used to describe things that are full of “sickly sweet” sentimentality, arose almost concurrently, one of several food texture- and taste-related words favored by critics to show disdain for art they deem overly emotive, including gooey, saccharine, mushy, and schmaltzy.

Examples of mawkish in a Sentence

a mawkish plea for donations to the charity
Recent Examples on the Web Co-directed with Jewish Israeli filmmaker Yaron Shani, the movie paints a subtle picture of a society split along fissures religious, political, cultural, and economic, without ever chiding his characters or dipping into mawkish sentimentality. Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Sep. 2024 And the hints for today’s groups are: Yellow group — leader or main thing Green group — these can be prickly Blue group — mawkish movies, perhaps Purple group — these have a limit, some might say What Are Today’s Connections Groups? Kris Holt, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2024 His desire to wrest explicit meaning out of the mother’s experience and corral viewers toward a single conclusion unwittingly places The Deliverance in mawkish and disappointingly cartoonish territory. Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 Now, after the two men canoodle, there’s a mawkish finale meant to invoke purpose and principle. Armond White, National Review, 26 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for mawkish 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mawkish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English mawke maggot, probably from Old Norse mathkr — more at maggot

First Known Use

circa 1697, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of mawkish was circa 1697

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near mawkish

Cite this Entry

“Mawkish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mawkish. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

mawkish

adjective
mawk·​ish ˈmȯ-kish How to pronounce mawkish (audio)
1
: having a weak often unpleasant taste
2
mawkishly adverb
mawkishness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on mawkish

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!