Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Excessively or tearfully sentimental, often in a self-pitying or insincere way: Describes an emotional display that is overly sentimental to the point of being embarrassing, shallow, or false. It often implies a state of being emotionally overwhelmed, sometimes due to drunkenness.

Usage

• The word "maudlin" is used to criticize or describe an exaggerated, weak, or insincere form of sentimentality. It is not used for genuine, deep emotion.
• It often describes emotional expressions in art, speech, or behavior.

Examples

• Adjective:
  • After a few drinks, he became maudlin and started crying about his lost youth.
  • I find the film's ending too maudlin; it tries too hard to make the audience cry.
  • She rejected the maudlin sympathy of her colleagues, preferring practical help.

Advanced Usage

• "Maudlin sentiment": Refers to feelings or expressions that are cloyingly and excessively sentimental.
  • The politician's speech was full of maudlin sentiment about a past that never really existed.
• "In a maudlin mood/state": Describes being in a condition characterized by self-pitying sadness.
  • He called his ex-girlfriend while in a maudlin state, which he regretted the next morning.

Variants and Related Words

• Maudlinism (n, rare): The quality or state of being maudlin.
  • The novel was criticized for its maudlinism.

Synonyms

• Bathetic: Anticlimactically sentimental.
• Mawkish: Sentimental in a feeble or sickly way.
• Schmaltzy (informal): Excessively sentimental, especially in music or writing.
• Slushy (informal): Foolishly sentimental.
• Corny (informal): Trite, banal, or mawkishly sentimental.

Antonyms

• Unsentimental: Not influenced by or showing feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.
• Stoic: Enduring pain or hardship without showing feelings or complaining.
• Restrained: Characterized by reserve or moderation in emotional expression.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• "To get/become maudlin": To become tearfully or weakly sentimental, often when drunk.
  • Whenever they talk about the old days, Uncle Joe gets maudlin.

Adjective

1. effusively or insincerely emotional
   • a bathetic novel
   • maudlin expressions of sympathy
   • mushy effusiveness
   • a schmaltzy song
   • sentimental soap operas
   • slushy poetry