hokey

[hoh-kee] /ˈhoʊ ki/

adjective, hokier, hokiest.

overly sentimental; mawkish:

Two glasses of wine and he gets unbearably hokey; it's hard to believe he's a highly paid executive!

Synonyms: corny, maudlin, melodramatic, cloying, goopy, mushy.

obviously contrived, especially to win popular appeal or support; phony:

The hokey stories of his impoverished childhood always surface at election time.

Synonyms: fake, false, artificial, counterfeit, sham, spurious.

Origin

1945-50; irregular hok(um) + -y¹

Related forms

hokeyness, hokiness, noun

Examples from the web for hokey

Some of it was a bit hokey, but other parts were pretty apt.
Every hokey teaching movie tells you that at some point.
In some cases, hokey fan-fic and short films that demonstrate clearly both the zeal and the amateur status of the creators.
Though excessively hokey at times, the film scores on its obvious sincerity.
Four decades later, the story of a family that works out its issues on a racetrack seems a little hokey.
Afterward, you can set up a picnic lunch at one of the nearby tables and watch others drive through, or visit the hokey gift shop.
No endless wires, no hokey wireless off mirrored saucers on the ceiling.
And, if they can get past the rambling clichés and hokey real-life examples, it might even help them get married.
People hear of using duct tape, they think it is hokey when this is serious information.
There are campaign posters, hokey by today's standards.

British Dictionary definitions for hokey

hokey

/ˈhəʊkɪ/

adjective (slang, mainly US & Canadian)

corny; sentimental

contrived; phoney

Word Origin

C20: from hokum

Contemporary definitions for hokey

adjective

See hokie

Word Origin and History for hokey

adj.

1927, from hoke + -y (2). Related: Hokiness.

Slang definitions & phrases for hokey

hokey

adjective

False and meretricious; very dubious; phony: hokey confections that public taste ought to repudiate/ The radio is jammed with hokey copies of US and European rock and roll songs (1927+)