Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Excessively and objectionably sentimental. synonym: sentimental.
  • adjective Archaic Having a sickening taste.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Maggoty. [Not found in this literal sense. Compare mawky, 1.] Hence Loathsome; apt to cause loathing or nausea; sickening.
  • Insipid; sickening; sickly: as, mawkish champagne; mawkish sentimentality.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Apt to cause satiety or loathing; nauseous; slightly nauseating; disgusting.
  • adjective Easily disgusted; squeamish; sentimentally fastidious.
  • adjective Weakly sentimental; maudlin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective archaic or dialectal Feeling sick, queasy.
  • adjective archaic Sickening or insipid in taste or smell.
  • adjective Excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective effusively or insincerely emotional

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mawk +‎ -ish.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Poetical mawkish duff gen/where a buzzard is 'noble' and lands/in a tree (surprise, surprise!)/to corroborate some trite tenet/cum badly-observed Nature Note.

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 23, 2008

  • See maudlin.

    July 17, 2009

  • overly sentimental to the point that it is disgusting

    The film was incredibly mawkish, introducing highly likeable characters only to have them succumb to a devastating illness by the end of the movie.

    October 15, 2016