More resembling cheese in quality or appearance; also means more embarrassingly tacky, over-the-top, or of poor quality (informal).
Comparative form of 'cheesy' (from 'cheese' + '-y', from Old English '-ig'). The pejorative sense (meaning tacky) emerged in 20th-century slang, possibly from 'cheesy' meaning of poor quality or low value.
The word 'cheesy' shifted from literally meaning 'made of cheese' to 'cheap and fake'—probably because low-quality films used theatrical, exaggerated acting like the taste of cheap processed cheese, showing how slang emerges from everyday comparisons.
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