mawkish

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Related to mawkish: mawkishly

mawk·ish

(mô′kĭsh)

adj.

1. Excessively and objectionably sentimental. See Synonyms at sentimental.

2. Archaic Having a sickening taste.

[From Middle English mawke, maggot, variant of magot; see maggot.]

mawk′ish·ly adv.

mawk′ish·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mawkish

(ˈmɔːkɪʃ)

adj

1. falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way

2. nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc

[C17: from obsolete mawk maggot + -ish]

ˈmawkishly adv

ˈmawkishness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mawk•ish

(ˈmɔ kɪʃ)

adj.

1. sentimental; maudlin.

2. mildly sickening in flavor.

[1660–70; obsolete mawk maggot (< Old Norse mathkr maggot) + -ish¹; see maggot]

mawk′ish•ly, adv.

mawk′ish•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

mawkish - effusively or insincerely emotional; "a bathetic novel"; "maudlin expressions of sympathy"; "mushy effusiveness"; "a schmaltzy song"; "sentimental soap operas"; "slushy poetry"

hokey, kitschy, maudlin, schmaltzy, schmalzy, bathetic, sentimental, slushy, soppy, soupy, mushy, drippy

emotional - of more than usual emotion; "his behavior was highly emotional"

mawkish

adjective sentimental, emotional, feeble, mushy (informal), soppy (Brit. informal), maudlin, slushy (informal), schmaltzy (slang), icky (informal), gushy (informal), three-hankie (informal) a sentimental plot with an inevitable mawkish ending

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

mawkish

adjective

Affectedly or extravagantly emotional:

bathetic, gushy, maudlin, romantic, sentimental, slushy, sobby, soft, soppy.

Informal: gooey, mushy, schmaltzy, sloppy, soupy.

Slang: drippy, sappy, tear-jerking.

Translations

rührselig

sdolcinato

mawkish

[ˈmɔːkɪʃ] ADJ → empalagoso, sensiblero, insulso

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

mawkish

[ˈmɔːkɪʃ] adj [film, play, scene, sentimentality] → mièvre

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

mawkish

adj → rührselig, sentimental

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

mawkish

[ˈmɔːkɪʃ] adj → svenevole, sdolcinato/a, insipido/a

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References in classic literature ?

Mawkish and over-mellow becometh the fruit in their hands: unsteady, and withered at the top, doth their look make the fruit-tree.

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I am not saying this now from any mawkish kind of remorse.

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He was astonished at its religious tone, which seemed to him neither mawkish nor sentimental.

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At Heidelberg I met a fat veterinary surgeon whose voice broke with sobs as he repeated some mawkish poetry.

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The poems were not great, some of them indeed were nothing less than mawkish, but perhaps they did not deserve the slashing review which appeared in the Edinburgh Review.

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There was no stile or gap at hand by which I could escape into the fields, so I walked quietly on, saying to myself, 'It may not be he after all; and if it is, and if he do annoy me, it shall be for the last time, I am determined, if there be power in words and looks against cool impudence and mawkish sentimentality so inexhaustible as his.'

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Similarly his pathos is often exaggerated until it passes into mawkish sentimentality, so that his humbly-bred heroines, for example, are made to act and talk with all the poise and certainty which can really spring only from wide experience and broad education.

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You'd hear of odd things if I lived alone with that mawkish, waxen face: the most ordinary would be painting on its white the colours of the rainbow, and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two: they detestably resemble Linton's.'

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Yet, another mug of beer?" and one and another successively having buried their blond whiskers in the mawkish draught, curled them and swaggered off into the fair.

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It would have been good-natured except for a look in the eyes, which shone with a watery, mawkish light under almost white, blinking eyelashes.

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Or that such mawkish fund-raising hops added to the painfully embarrassing pop concerts and pay-at-the-gate grave visits can do nothing but cheapen and demean the memory of a woman that has already been blighted by cynically over-hyped outpourings of alleged grief.

Star spangled snub for Queen of Hearts party

But she despises Cameron's mawkish compassion for criminals, and wants to bring back capital punishment.