mawkish

Adjective

mawkish (comparative more mawkish, superlative most mawkish)

1. Excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment.
   • 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.2014 August 11, Dave Itzkoff, “Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide”, in New York Times
   • 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.2019 May 12, Adrian Searle, “Mawkish monuments and the beach from hell: our verdict on the Venice Biennale”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   cutesy, maudlin, schmaltzy, sickly-sweet, slushy, mushy, soppy, treacly

   Antonyms:

   rational

2. (archaic, dialectal) Feeling sick, queasy.

   Synonyms:

   nauseated, vomity, barfy, nauseatic, pukey, pukish, queasy, sick, sick to one's stomach

3. (archaic) Sickening or insipid in taste or smell.

   Synonyms:

   bland, cardboard, flaggy, flavorless, ingustible, intastable, savorless, insipid, tame, gustless