mawkish
Sickeningly sweet emotionally
Mawkish describes excessive sentimentality that feels false or nauseating.
A mawkish greeting card drowns in sugary emotion.
A mawkish speech tries too hard to tug heartstrings.
The word carries disgust—not just that something is overly sweet, but that its sweetness is cloying and insincere: The film's mawkish ending ruined two hours of solid drama.
Exaggeratedly sentimental
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
- sappyExcessively sentimental
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
- lachrymoseProne to crying
weepy · tearful · syrupy · treacly · gushy · mushy · soppy · bathetic
Causing disgust or nausea
- queasyMildly sick to stomach
- stomach-turningCausing physical disgust
- nauseousFeeling urge to vomit
- cloyingExcessively sweet or sentimental
oversweet · sickly-sweet · off-putting · unpalatable · distasteful · gross · icky · yucky
Falsely displayed or simulated
- disingenuousFeigning ignorance or innocence
- phonyFraudulent person or thing
- contrivedDeliberately manufactured, unnatural
- artificialMade, not natural
affected · false · sham · inauthentic · hollow · put-on · pretended · manufactured
saccharine
Exaggeratedly sentimental
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
- sappyExcessively sentimental
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
lachrymose · weepy · tearful · syrupy · treacly · gushy · mushy · soppy · bathetic · overwrought
sickening
Causing disgust or nausea
- queasyMildly sick to stomach
- stomach-turningCausing physical disgust
- nauseousFeeling urge to vomit
cloying · oversweet · sickly-sweet · off-putting · unpalatable · distasteful · gross · icky · yucky · fulsome
feigned
Falsely displayed or simulated
- disingenuousFeigning ignorance or innocence
- phonyFraudulent person or thing
- contrivedDeliberately manufactured, unnatural
artificial · affected · false · sham · inauthentic · hollow · put-on · pretended · manufactured · forced
- sentimentalityschmaltzy, saccharine, treacly, cloying, mushy
- emotionaldramatic, hysterical, weepy, tearful, melodramatic
- melodramatichistrionic, theatrical, overwrought, exaggerated, dramatic
- excessive sweetnesssaccharine, cloying, syrupy, sugary, treacly
- movingmoving, moving truck, move out, move in, movers
mawkishunsentimental
Lacking emotional softness
unemotional · hard-boiled · stoic · matter-of-fact · cynical
mawkishtasteful
Aesthetically appropriate and pleasing
understated · sincere · poignant · heartfelt · restrained