gooey
Americanadjective
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like or covered with goo; sticky; viscid.
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Informal. extremely sentimental or emotionally effusive.
adjective
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sticky, soft, and often sweet
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oversweet and sentimental
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gooey
Explanation
Gooey things are drippy and soft, as well as sticky. Your very favorite dessert might be a huge, melty, gooey hot fudge sundae. Few things are more annoying than stepping on something gooey on the sidewalk, or getting a gooey piece of gum stuck in your hair. Gooey candy, likewise, might taste delicious but get stuck in your teeth. The informal gooey is the perfect way to describe these gummy, tacky substances, and it comes from American-coined slang, from goo, probably a shortened form of the now-obsolete burgoo, meaning "thick porridge."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was gooey, soft and slathered in a classic tangy cream cheese frosting.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
It’s where Demi Moore kicked off her gooey comeback with “The Substance.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026
After 40 minutes of the technician repeatedly dragging a warm and gooey wand across my chest, I had 95 images—and enough gel on my skin to moisturize a lizard for a year.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
You’ll encounter a kind of linguistic confetti: cakey, fudgy, moist, dense, rich, gooey, chewy.
From Salon • Mar. 5, 2026
Inside I found a large portion of the lasagna that had been at dinner yesterday, reheated so the cheese stuck in gooey puddles to the foil.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
