Schmaltzy

//ˈʃmɒltsi// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Overly sentimental, emotional, maudlin or bathetic.

    "During a series of interviews, Franzen expressed ambivalence about Oprah’s endorsement—[…] that he had found a few of her choices in the past “schmaltzy” and “one-dimensional.”"

Adjective
  1. 1
    effusively or insincerely emotional wordnet

Example

More examples

"During a series of interviews, Franzen expressed ambivalence about Oprah’s endorsement—[…] that he had found a few of her choices in the past “schmaltzy” and “one-dimensional.”"

Etymology

From schmaltz + -y.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.