corny1

[kawr-nee] /ˈkɔr ni/
adjective, cornier, corniest.
1.
of or abounding in corn.
2.
Informal.
  1. old-fashioned, trite, or lacking in subtlety:
    corny jokes.
  2. mawkishly sentimental:
    a corny soap opera.
Origin
1350-1400; 1930-35 for def 2; Middle English; see corn1, -y1
Related forms
cornily, adverb
corniness, noun
Synonyms
2. hackneyed, banal, stale.

corny2

[kawr-nee] /ˈkɔr ni/
adjective, cornier, corniest.
1.
pertaining to or affected with corns of the feet.
Origin
1700-10; corn2 + -y1
Examples from the web for corny
  • It was an old gag, and so corny it would make you groan.
  • There isn't much beauty to be seen, unless you include some polluted sunrises and corny naturism.
  • Sometimes, as a friend used to say, things are so corny they're good.
  • The second rewarding aspect of the job probably sounds corny but it's true: teaching.
  • She can sniff a corny guy or a phony book quick as a dog smells a rat.
  • What they all have in common is that they add extra value to an easy-to-emulate product by throwing in a corny experience.
  • It was corny in the original, but got better and better over the years.
  • corny notions of dollar-savings and/or materialist minimalism have never worked and are never going to work against consumerism.
  • The group merges dance music from all over the world without the results sounding at all forced or corny.
  • She nails college kids' vocabulary without becoming corny.
British Dictionary definitions for corny

corny

/ˈkɔːnɪ/
adjective (slang) cornier, corniest
1.
trite or banal
2.
sentimental or mawkish
3.
abounding in corn
Word Origin
C16 (C20 in the sense rustic, banal): from corn1 + -y1
Word Origin and History for corny
adj.

1570s, "full of corn, pertaining to corn, from corn (n.1) + -y (2). Chaucer used it of ale (late 14c.), perhaps to mean "malty." American English slang "old-fashioned, sentimental" is from 1932 (first attested in "Melody Maker"), perhaps originally "something appealing to country folk" (corn-fed in the same sense is attested from 1929). Related: Cornily; corniness.

Slang definitions & phrases for corny

corny

adjective

Overly sentimental; banal; devoted to or expressing old-fashioned moral convictions; cornball

[1930+ Jazz musicians; the writer Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) suggested as possible origin the corn-seed catalogs sent to Midwestern farmers before and after 1900, which were larded with tired old jokes; the jokes were called corn jokes and corny]