This is an important word and nobody has it right yet. What it means is: Trying too hard, unsubtle, and inauthentic. Specifically that which is unsubtle or inauthentic in its way of trying to elicit a certain response from a viewer, listener, audience, etc. Celine Cheesy valentines day gifts is cheesy because her lyrics, timbre, key changes, and swelling orchestral accompaniment telegraph ‘i want you to be moved’ instead of moving you.

What seems cheesy to me, may be a legitimate and attractive hairstyle to you. What seems cheesy to me, may cause you to weep and hug your girlfriend tight. That Celine Dion song is so cheesy. From cheese cloth, the thin cheap fabric used to drain cheese curd, and in the past sometimes used instead for proper cloth in cheap clothing.

This one feels a little cheesy. Hence any low-grade or fake product, tangible or not, offered to the public. Something that is unintentionally kitschy, tacky, or of poor quality, but these flaws go unnoticed by the admirers of said thing. Something that was popular at some point in the past, but that now seems lame in retrospect. I can’t believe you like Ashlee Simpson. Hey, look at this picture of dad from 1975!

Check out those sideburns and bellbottoms! More specifically, the status quo here being that of Generation X. In fact, we hated them so much, that we kept listening to them last night and singing along until 4 in the morning. Learn the words you need to communicate with confidence. The tourist shops had nothing but cheesy souvenirs.

The magazine’s past objects of satire, the cheesy villains who anointed themselves as targets in the 1980s, were no longer on the national stage. This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license. The gleba is white when young and has a cheesy appearance and consistency. The infection is confirmed by finding the organism during microscopic examination of the greenish fluids, cheesy material or the lesion. Cheesy garlic bread was chosen as the winner and was added to the lineup. Words like cinematic or theatrical come to mind, but not in a cheesy, contrived sense.