Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) bizarre, strange.

1901

Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 141: gooey, adj. Weird, making one creep.

2. sentimental, mawkish.

1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 58: Ain’t it the gooey mess of heart-throbs when you come right down to it?
1921		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 25 Mar. [synd. col.] Killarney roses and violets. Almost an inspiration for a gooey song.
1934		B. Appel Brain Guy (1937) 157: Bill wasn’t going gooey soft or thinking : Crime don‘t pay.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 111: Nobody goes all gooey over a character like me.
1967		H.S. Thompson letter 28 June in Proud Highway (1997) 626: Sell all his gooey information to the highest bidder.
1973		P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 123: Why do you get all gooey about a joker like Koko?
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 116: She was lovely with great gooey eyes.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 42: Some gooey greeting that all employees were supposed to say.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 134: She believed all the gooey bullshit he spun her.
1999		Indep. Rev. 11 Oct. 4: Barry White has gone a bit gooey.
2001		Indep. Rev. 18 June 5: What drives him is a gooey desperation to be loved by his best friend’s girlfriend.

3. sticky, viscid.

1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 40: Jest put some gooey stuff in the barrel and you get suction as good as a solid syringe.
1929		(con. WWI) J.B. Wharton Squad 48: His left hand here’s all gooey.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 98: He would dip the point of the yen hok into a jar of dark-brown gooey stuff that looked like tar.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 129: Hugs and gooey kisses and a whiff of onions.
1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 86: I rubbed a gooey blob of dirt off my right forearm.
1972		Nova Apr. 92: I’ve promised him there are lots of things that aren’t gooey, it’s not like Chinese food.
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 291: The pie exploded [...] and Grubb himself was one big gooey smear.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 322: She held up a gooey stick of insect repellent.
2000		Guardian G2 4 May 12: His bottom is all gooey.

4. distasteful and distressing.

1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 15 Nov. [synd. col.] Mrs. Hugh Dillman’s Palm Beach divorce will be gooey.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 47: It’s soft, it’s gooey . . . but choose it I did not . . . in my mother’s hot womb did she curse this name [Les] on me.