mawkish

adjective

mawk·ish ˈmȯ-kish

Synonyms of mawkish next

: lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste

: exaggeratedly or childishly emotional

a mawkish love story

mawkish poetry

mawkishly adverb

mawkishness noun

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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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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