cheesy
adjective

- clearly of cheap quality or in bad style

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

- something that is unintentionally kitschy, tacky, or of poor quality (but these flaws go unnoticed by its admirers)

- something that was popular at some point in the past (but that now seems lame in retrospect)

(adapted from Urban Dictionary)

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WORD ORIGIN

"Chiz” means "thing” in Urdu, the Indo-Aryan language spoken in Pakistan and India.

British colonialists in India began using the word in the early 1800s in the sense of "a big thing”, which led to the expression "big cheese”, which is slang for an important person.

By 1858, the meaning of cheesy had evolved into "showy” and in modern times now refers to something that is of cheap quality or style, or something that is done in bad taste.

Today's younger generation has adopted cheesy to express its dislike for things that are no longer trendy or cool. But let's face it, cheesy is a relative term. What some may consider cheesy, others might find irresistible. Or perhaps something can be cheesy and irresistible at the same time; like the Eurovision Song Contest.

With its share of talented as well as cheesy singers, the music presented at Eurovision is not for everyone; and occasionally, bands border on the bizarre.

In 1998, Guildo Horn and The Orthopaedic Stockings made their way to 7th place with "Guildo hat euch lieb”, a song produced by German comedian Stefan Raab. In 2000, Raab won the German contest himself with his disco-rap number "Wadde Hadde Dudde Da” which he sang in an invented dialect, roughly translated as "was hast du denn da?".

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SYNONYMS

cheap, crass, crude, dowdy, faded, gaudy, hokey, inelegant, kitschy, mawkish, no-class, out-of-date, outmoded, poky, ratty, shabby, shoddy, sleazy, stodgy, stupid, tacky, tactless, tasteless, tawdry, uncouth, unstylish

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ANTONYMS

classy, cool, elegant, hip, in, stylish, tasteful

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

"After the trade fair had closed, we usually ended up at a Karaoke bar and sang CHEESY songs until the early hours of the morning.”