mawkish
characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.
Origin of mawkish
1Other words for mawkish
Other words from mawkish
- mawk·ish·ly, adverb
- mawk·ish·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
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 BensonDickens's sentiment seldom rings perfectly true; too often it is sharped to flippancy, or flatted to mawkishness.
Washington Irving | Henry W. BoyntonHis Endymion, 1818, though disfigured by mawkishness and by some affectations of manner, was rich in promise.
From Chaucer to Tennyson | Henry A. BeersThere were few tears and less mawkishness when the battalions moved out from their home towns on the long trail.
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
/ (ˈmɔːkɪʃ) /
falsely sentimental, esp in a weak or maudlin way
nauseating or insipid in flavour, smell, etc
Origin of mawkish
1Derived forms of mawkish
- mawkishly, adverb
- mawkishness, noun
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
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