Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also cheese, cheesey, ham and cheese) of objects and occas. individuals, outdated, unfashionable, cheap and second-rate.

1849		in S. Massett First Californian Troubador (1954) 35: The orchestra consisted of [...] a very cheesy flageolet, played by a gentleman with one eye.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 17: cheesy a. A vague term of depreciation.
1902		Truth (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: There’s rows and ructions / Goin’ on about Hyde Park, / Tellin’ of sand-baggin’ cases, / Pluggin’ in there after dark. / I nose that the place are cheesy.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 247: Cheesy. Bad.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 43: I don’t know where some o’ them cheese actors get the nerve to come out.
1911		T.A. Dorgan Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 14 July [synd. cartoon strip] A couple of cheese detectives are watching her room.
1911		Truth (Sydney) 26 Mar. 12/3: I knows as the parks are cheesey; / Not too good, sir, by a chalk.
1911		T.A. Dorgan ‘Silk Hat Harry’ in El Paso Herald (TX) 15 Aug. 10: Give those cheese lawyers the gate.
1916		A. Stringer Door of Dread 117: You’re about the cheesiest thing at picking track-winners that ever got loose!
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 171: ‘It’s been pretty cheesy fer me,’ began the Kid. ‘Not a cent,’ said Hugo. ‘You can go out maka mon just lika me.’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 98: A lot of cheesy old stories and slang and junk.
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 180: Wasn’t it pretty cheesey in spots?
1936		Times (Munster, IN) 26 Aug. 12/2: A refreshing stock of non-vitriolic insults enlivens the bubbler’s [i.e. Bing Crosby] cheese show.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 204: You were not good. You were cheesy. Your work lacked fire and snap.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 48: It had no false fronts, no cheesy billboards.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 51: Melora so elegant and Gloria so cheesy.
1965		Wisconsin State Jrnl 17 Jan. 1-2: One step lower than these persons [i.e. ‘out to lunch’ would be the one or ones called ‘sandwich’ or ‘ham and cheese.’.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 15: Cheezy, adj. Raggedy, scrawny, unattractive.
1974		(con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 524: He silently cursed Zale’s for selling such cheesy damned diamonds.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 65: He slapped those cheesy shades from the man’s face again.
1991		N. Krulik Hammer and Vanilla Ice 22: An article in a magazine even went so far as to call Hammer’s rappin’: ‘a cheesy, pop-orientated production’.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 108: Things are pretty cheesey since you left.
1993		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: spread cheese – act cheesy.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: cheezy – unpopular, out of fashion.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 16: This ain’t no cheesy compilation shit.
1999		Guardian G2 20 Oct. 12: We see Pippin in ultra-English cheesy blazer and cravat.
2001		Week (US) 1 June 24: Taking on every convention of Broadway musicals – cheesy dialogue, ridiculous plots.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 346: I saw cheezy furniture – rock-bottom rental stuff.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Christ, this cheesy dialogue was coming a little too easy.
2005		Mad mag. Apr. 14: She’s falling for Count Stroganoff’s cheesy sailor act.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 255: An in one a the most cheesiest moments a my life ever, I promise [...] that I isn’t the kind a guy who’d ever try to change her.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 14: While cheesy, this [i.e. writing copy for medical products] is a serious, high-stakes business.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 298: She lost interest in her detective novels [...] she didn’t have the time for cheesy gasbaggery.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] Chatting up the girls with his cheesy lines.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 197: August ’52. The cheesy Chessman piece.

2. smelly; esp. (gay) referring to a smegma-coated foreskin.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 400: Cheesy. Very bad indeed, of bad odor.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 202: Cheesy – To be filthy with dirt.
1951		Kerouac letter 31 Aug. in Charters I (1995) 324: The inexpressible cheesy old horror shitstink of morgues.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 7: cheesy; as applied to the penis which has been allowed to accumulate smegma.
1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 184: I hustled up, smearing my armpits with Mum and my just washed body with the cheesy Commissary grease some guys used to screw sissies with around here.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 44: cheesy having the foreskin lined with smegma; stale and musky smelling.
1989		Kirk & Madsen After The Ball 304: Uncut cheesy meat.
1991		J. Osborne Déjàvu Act I: Keening like a peasant over a cheesy old dog.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 31: Thev got thuh cheesiest feet in thuh whole fuckin world. Gorgonbastardzola, am tellin ya.
2007		M. Rowson Stuff 93: Rotten eggs and cheesy socks.

3. (US teen) disloyal.

1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 48: Beano’ll let ’em all in on it sooner or later anyway. You’re not being cheesy by telling Gil, OK?
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 108: You gonna punk out on me again. I thought ya got over punkin’ out the last time! [...] I want no vice-president talkin’ cheesy!

4. (also cheesey) of individuals, socially unacceptable; thus spread cheese v., to act in a socially unacceptable manner.

1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] You’re a stinkin’ drunk You’re a cheesy junk.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 30: You ain’t the cheesy type.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 134: The cheesy little bastard [...] was snivelling on the corrugated rubber floor of the terminal.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 14: cheesy-cheesy slicker [...] a person with whom one is angry or irritated; a cheese head.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 82: These cheesy bastards [...] spewed out lousy cover versions of the hitmakers of the day.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 54: ‘Better than those cheesy old mutts you drag through the door’.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 21: Other expressions must be said with specific combinations of pitch, stress, and pauses. Gouda, gouda, gouda, a signal that someone who is cheezy (an L7) is approaching, is intoned in measured alternations of stressed and unstressed syllables to imitate a pulsing alarm.
2009		T. Black Gutted 121: He’s a cheesy little shiny-arsed bastard.
2011		Week 26 Feb. 17: Lee spotted her personal ad [...] and sent her some cheesy emails and a laughable beefcake photo.
2016		Observer (London) Rev. 16 Oct. 5/1: They’re awful and cheesy.