as in rustical
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
a movie about a cornball making his way through a world of cynical sophisticates
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cornball
A.a. Dowd, Chron, 7 Feb. 2023
Seemingly the only non-conservative included in the bit was Shri Thanedar, a Democrat and state representative from Michigan, who appeared in a cornball commercial featuring people demonstrating mind-bendingly bad acting.
—oregonlive, 15 Sep. 2022
EW.com, 2 Mar. 2024
Meanwhile, customers grew to know him for his hospitable eccentricity and his cheerful cornball ads.
—oregonlive, 13 Sep. 2023
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Adjective
Soderbergh keeps cutting around the cornball potential of the material.
—A.a. Dowd, Chron, 7 Feb. 2023
Seemingly the only non-conservative included in the bit was Shri Thanedar, a Democrat and state representative from Michigan, who appeared in a cornball commercial featuring people demonstrating mind-bendingly bad acting.
—oregonlive, 15 Sep. 2022
Noun
Ivan Reitman’s family comedy is nothing if not cornball.
—EW.com, 2 Mar. 2024
Meanwhile, customers grew to know him for his hospitable eccentricity and his cheerful cornball ads.
—oregonlive, 13 Sep. 2023
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cornball
Noun
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Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
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In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.—
D. T. Max,
The New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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The delightful sets, ridiculous scenarios, and hokey alien encounters would’ve been enough to thrill any Trekker, but the performances bring the tribute to the next level.—
Steve Greene,
IndieWire,
12 Apr. 2025
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After the hokey show last year, the Academy this time at least tries to capture the Zen of the movie year.—
Bill Wyman,
Vulture,
28 Feb. 2025
Noun
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In real time, the audience, the queens watching, and perhaps Suzie herself all learn that Suzie has a knack for sexiness onstage, even though she’s dressed as a clown.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
12 Apr. 2025
-
Among the mass-shooting victims is a bloodied clown who was performing at the festival.—
James Poniewozik,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Each is rustic and snug, offering a private deck overlooking the South Atlantic, with woolen blankets to cozy up with.—
Travel + Leisure Editors,
Travel + Leisure,
16 Apr. 2025
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And, of course, a rustic backdrop featuring melting clocks, a lot like Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, bridges the familiar with the fantastical.—
Adelle Platon,
VIBE.com,
15 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The latest scheme is to create a 2.5% business-to-business tax, a tax hidden in the costs of businesses so that those rubes also known as voters may not notice it.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
18 Mar. 2025
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Walsh’s male fantasists—the nameless rubes of Ballyturk, the desperate suitors of Penelope, even the heartbroken father at the center of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers—get to strut and bluster and scream into the wind.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
23 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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At a photo booth, guests grabbed signs with all sorts of corny, apropos quips for a retirement party: Having fun is my new job.—
Gustavo Arellano,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Apr. 2025
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He’s beloved in the math and science wing, a big guy with a grin and graying hair who peppers lessons on polynomial functions with corny jokes.—
Stephen J. Nesbitt,
New York Times,
27 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2025
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Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
21 June 2024
Adjective
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Cattle—even corn-fed ones—tend to spend much of their life on pasture eating grass, which leads to a lot of methane burps, but growing that grass is not carbon intensive.—
Sarah Zhang,
The Atlantic,
8 Jan. 2025
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Never underestimate a corn-fed basic from Hockeytown.—
Meredith Blake,
Los Angeles Times,
29 May 2023
Cite this Entry
“Cornball.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cornball. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
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