Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gush n.2

[gush v.]

an objectionably effusive or sentimental display of feeling, esp. as spoken.

[US]J.W. Haley Rebel Yell and The Yankee Hurrah (1985) 112: I must indulge in a trifle of ‘gush’ over the natural beauty of this place.
[UK] ‘’Arry on Politics’ in Punch 11 May 205/2: No treacle-tub gammon for us, mate, nor no cosmypolitan gush.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Dec. 13/1: Referring to the death [...] of Mr James Punch, the writer certainly treats us to an amount of gush, which would be ludicrous were is not almost indecent.
[UK]Bristol Magpie 27 July 3/1: What need to wait the Conference ‘gush’.
[US]E. Nye Baled Hay 102: The namby-pamby style of Indian editorial and molasses-candy gush.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/4: Want of space prevents us from dealing with the congenial subject of refreshments, and a lot of select gush about the ladies’ dresses and the music is omitted for the same reason.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 6 Jan. 5/3: None of the New Year’s ‘honors’ were showered upon the residents of this colony. That will materially affect the flow of loyal gush [...] in fashionable quarters .
[UK]M. Williams Round London 151: There was the usual gush in the society papers about the devotion of the intending bridegroom.
[UK]B.L. Farjeon Amblers 72: My sister-in-law wishes to know if what you have written is true criticism, or [...] gush?
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Jan. 1/1: The sickly gush in the dailies about the tinpot Councils makes one tired.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 20 Apr. 10/3: It’s the feemales as they nobbles, / Does this holy josser push — / Workin'. on', their soft emotions / With their dam sky-scrapin’ gush.
[US]Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 21 Apr. 11/1: [He] peddles his pet line of slushy gush.
[US]S. Anderson Dark Laughter 179: Sentimentality! Gush!
[Ire]S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 102: As Miss Carridge in a moment of gush had had the folly to reveal.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 70: He didn’t want to [...] listen to that gush between the old man and Kathrina, his bride of two months.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 211: A couple of minutes of romantic gush.
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 188: Instead of deliverin’ some hopeless gush, she snuck around my workbench and began singing.

In derivatives

gushy (adj.)

sentimental, emotional.

[UK]Punch 12 Apr. 169/1: There is a gushy vivacity in the manner of telling the pleasant fact, that ‘in the afternoon the Grand Duchess visited her daughter the Marchioness of Douglas’ .
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe 142: Sister had that gushy look in her eyes that her kind wears after they’ve been to see Maude Adams.
[US]S. Ford Torchy 57: The one with the Maxine Elliott eyes and the gushy voice?
M.W. Harris Gospel Blues 117: Somewhere between his gushy reverence for old-line directors and his lackadaisical attitude toward their music.

In phrases

penny gush (n.)

the effusive journalese found in penny newspapers, the late 19C tabloids.

[UK]G.A. Sala in Illus. London News 16 Dec. in Ware (1909) 194/2: This, published in an English paper, would probably be described as penny gush.