corny
/ˈkɔːni
/adjective (cornier, corniest) informal
Trite, banal, or mawkishly sentimental: it sounds corny, but as soon as I saw her I knew she was the one...
- It may sound trite, cliche, corny, even, but I would like to thank my parents.
- There's nothing corny about her sentimental soul - the music has classic written all over it.
- Hey now, any guy likes to be served by a cute waitress smiling and laughing at all your corny jokes, it just makes you feel good.
Synonyms
banal, trite, hackneyed, commonplace, clichéd, predictable, stereotyped, platitudinous, inane, fatuous, vapid, jejune, weak, feeble, tired, stale, overworked, overused, well worn;
mawkish, sentimental, sickly, sickly-sweet, cloying, syrupy, sugary, saccharine, honeyed, oversweet, sickening, nauseating, choking;
British twee
informal old hat, out of the ark, played out, hacky, cheesy
mushy, slushy, sloppy, schmaltzy, cutesy, cute, gooey, drippy, treacly, icky, sick-making, toe-curling
British informal soppy
North American informal cornball, dime-store, sappy, hokey
rare truistic, bromidic
Derivatives
cornily
- Without the almost cornily interwoven plot, the story is predictable.
- He pronounced every syllable, and he did the accents convincingly but not cornily.
- Of course, it's cornily romantic, a picture postcard.
corniness
- Jennifer is very warm and emotional, sometimes to the point of corniness.
- ‘Flavors’ doesn't entirely escape the trap of the stereotype, but its greater flaw is one that afflicts most amateur scripts - corniness.
- Though elegantly acted and shot overall, Man on the Train works best in its minutest parts, little idiosyncratic touches that bring humanity and humour to the mounting corniness.
Origin
1930s: from an earlier sense 'rustic, appealing to country folk'.