mawkish

English

Alternative forms

• maukish (obsolete)

Etymology

From mawk +‎ -ish.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːkɪʃ/

• (file)

• (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːkɪʃ/
• Rhymes: (UK, US) -ɔːkɪʃ, (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American, Canada) -ɑːkɪʃ

Adjective

mawkish (comparative more mawkish, superlative most mawkish)

1. Excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment.

   Synonyms: cutesy, maudlin, schmaltzy

   Antonym: rational

   • 2014 August 11, Dave Itzkoff, “Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Some of Mr. Williams’s performances were criticized for a mawkish sentimentality, like “Patch Adams,” a 1998 film that once again cast him as a good-hearted doctor, and “Bicentennial Man,” a 1999 science-fiction feature in which he played an android.

   • 2019 May 12, Adrian Searle, “Mawkish monuments and the beach from hell: our verdict on the Venice Biennale”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     I found [Christoph] Buchel’s appropriation of the boat in which so many migrants lost their lives a vile and mawkish spectacle in the context of the biennale.

   • April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair‎^[3]:

     The tabloids branded him James Hewitt forevermore as the “love rat,” and Pasternak was excoriated for peddling mawkish fantasy.

     (Adapted from the book The Palace Papers, published 2022 by Penguin Books.)

2. (archaic or dialectal) Feeling sick, queasy.
3. (archaic) Sickening or insipid in taste or smell.

Derived terms

• mawkishly
• mawkishness

Anagrams

• hawkism