mawkishly

9.9

In a very sad and fake way that feels too strong

adverb
/ˈmɔːkɪʃli/

: sensibleramente

His mawkishly emotional response to the gift left everyone in the room feeling a bit awkward.

Examples

The movie was criticized for its mawkishly sentimental scenes that made many viewers uncomfortable.
Its illustration shows the wedded twosome mawkishly holding hands and staring out of their spaceship window at astral dazzlement.

Fiction book (1993)
If I may be mawkishly poetic -- holdkris99 was the piece of grit, and the rest of your comments formed the pearl around it.

Blog text (13)
She delivered her speech mawkishly, shedding tears and reminiscing about her childhood in a way that felt excessive.

Synonyms

sentimentally

vsmawkishly

2 4.7

In a way that shows warm feelings about people or the past

is an excessive, sickly emotional expression rather than ordinary tenderness

melodramatically

vsmawkishly

1 7.2

In a way that shows too much feeling to seem real

is sentimental and sickly rather than theatrical or staged emotion

cloyingly

vsmawkishly

1 8.4

In a way that is too sweet or too emotional to enjoy

is more about sickly emotional excess rather than sweet richness alone

drippily

vsmawkishly

9.2

In a way that is too emotional and shows too much feeling

is overly sentimental and sickly but not always causing strong discomfort

mushily

vsmawkishly

7.4

In a very emotional and sweet way

is more intensely sickly and extreme than soft tender emotion

dewily

vsmawkishly

9.9

In a way that looks like someone has wet eyes because they feel moved

is a sickly, excessive emotional tone rather than simple tearful feeling

Antonyms

sincerely

152 1.0

In a way that shows true feelings without pretending

unemotionally

1 5.0

In a calm way that does not show feelings

How Sentimental

cloyingly

1 8.4

mawkishly

9.9

sentimentally

2 4.7

touchingly

2 5.1

Surface Forms

mawkishly positive

Morphology

mawkishly = mawkish (transparent) = mawkish + ly

Standard adverbial formation from the adjective 'mawkish' using the productive suffix '-ly', so the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Mawkishly comes from an old word mawk that meant 'sick' or 'nauseating', a word people used for things that made them feel ill from too much sweetness. So to behave mawkishly is to be overly sweet or sentimental in a way that feels 'sickly' rather than real.