n. 1. Informal a. Excessively sentimental art or music. b. Maudlin sentimentality. 2. Liquid fat, especially chicken fat. [Yiddish shmalts, animal fat, sentimentality, from Middle High German smalz, animal fat, from Old High German; see mel-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] schmaltzi·ness n. schmaltzy adj. |
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