sentimentalize
/,senti'mentəlaiz/ Cách viết khác : (sentimentalise) /,senti'mentəlaiz/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (transitive):
- To cause someone or something to become sentimental; to imbue with excessive or inappropriate sentiment.
- To view or portray something in an excessively emotional, nostalgic, or tender way, often ignoring its true nature or complexity.
Verb (intransitive):
- To act in a sentimental manner; to indulge in or express sentimental thoughts or feelings.
Usage and Examples
Transitive verb (to make sentimental):
- The film's soundtrack sentimentalizes the harsh reality of the war.
- We must be careful not to sentimentalize historical figures, remembering their flaws as well as their virtues.
Intransitive verb (to act sentimentally):
- He tends to sentimentalize when he talks about his childhood home.
- Don't sentimentalize; we need to make a practical decision.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
Critical Connotation: The word often carries a critical or negative connotation, implying that the sentimentality is excessive, false, or manipulative.
- The biography was criticized for trying to sentimentalize the dictator's early years.
In Artistic Critique: Frequently used in literary, film, and art criticism to describe works that rely on cheap emotion.
- The director refused to sentimentalize the ending, leaving it raw and unresolved.
Variants and Related Words
- Sentimental (adjective): Characterized by excessive, self-indulgent, or superficial feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.
- a sentimental song about lost love
- Sentimentalism (noun): Excessive indulgence in sentiment, especially in art or literature.
- Sentimentality (noun): The quality of being sentimental.
- Sentimentalization (noun): The process or result of making something sentimental.
- The sentimentalization of rural life in the novel.
Synonyms
- Romanticize: To deal with or describe in an idealized, unrealistic, or sentimental way.
- Idealize: To regard or represent as perfect or better than in reality.
- Sugarcoat: To make something seem more pleasant or acceptable than it is.
Antonyms
- Desentimentalize: To remove sentimental qualities from.
- Objectify: To treat as an object, often without regard for emotion.
- Criticize: To evaluate or judge analytically and without undue emotion.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- To view through rose-tinted glasses: To see only the pleasant aspects of something, similar to sentimentalizing.
- He views his college years through rose-tinted glasses, forgetting all the stress.
- To gush over: To express excessive enthusiasm or sentiment about something.
- She gushed over the old photographs, remembering every detail fondly.
Verb
- act in a sentimental way or indulge in sentimental thoughts or expression
- make (someone or something) sentimental or imbue with sentimental qualities
- Too much poetry sentimentalizes the mind
- These experiences have sentimentalized her
- look at with sentimentality or turn into an object of sentiment
- Don't sentimentalize the past events