schmaltzyadj.

a1934 N. Kimball Nell Kimball: Life as Amer. Madam (1970) x. 106 Zig liked smaltzy German tunes about black forests and trolls.

1934 Melody News 1 Oct. 3/2 He is never over-elaborate or schmaltzy; and he doesn't indulge in cliches.

1959 Guardian 27 Oct. 7/6 I'm working on something real schmaltzy for one of your women's magazines.

1974 T. P. Whitney tr. A. Solzhenitsyn Gulag Archipel. I. i. v. 218 Yuri painted for nothing schmaltzy pictures such as Nero's Feast and the Chorus of Elves and the like for the German officers on the commandant's staff.

1986 Washington Post 28 July (Final ed.) (Style section) d3 She favors the schmaltziest of ballads and the most predictable of dance tunes.

2012 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 4 June (Guide) 2 The Eurovision world is a veritable kingdom of kitsch, a realm of schmaltzy songs.

1953 Commentary Jan. 173/2 The middle-class American's attitude towards the Jews has often degenerated into the corniness and schmaltziness we are familiar with in many radio and movie ‘treatments’ produced by both Jews and non-Jews.

1962 John o' London's 5 July 19/1 A few weeks ago she [sc. the All-American Mum] turned up in All Fall Down, embodied with searing schmalziness by Angela Lansbury.

2012 N.Y. Mag. 31 Dec. 79/2 It's a more fablelike treatment of the burgeoning understanding and affection between these two young people—and it might have worked, had the film chosen to temper its own schmaltziness.