maudlin
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
ipa: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
ipa: /ˈmɑːd.lɪn/
Forms: form: more maudlin
form: most maudlin
Etymology: From Middle English Maudelen, a dialectal form of Mary Magdalene (typically depicted weeping), from Old French Madelaine (whence Madeleine), from Late Latin Magdalena (see Magdalena, Magdalene, and Maudlin).
Senses: examples: text: Why, man, you couldn't stand—you made everybody laugh in the Gardens, though you were crying yourself. You were maudlin, Jos. Don't you remember singing a song?
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: With the help of a sleepy waiter, Little Billee got the bacchanalian into his room and lit his candle for him, and, disengaging himself from his maudlin embraces, left him to wallow in solitude.
ref: 1894, George du Maurier, “Part Third”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 165:
text: He was a drunkard, and had not known it. What he had fondly imagined was a pleasant exhilaration had been maudlin intoxication.
ref: c. 1900, O. Henry, The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball:
text: ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.
ref: 1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
synonyms: word: mushy
word: sappy
word: schmaltzy
word: drippy
word: soupy
word: slushy
word: Adrian Quist
word: adrip
word: aled up
word: all mops and brooms
word: arseholed
word: a sheet in the wind
word: a sheet in the wind's eye
word: bedrunken
word: befuddled
word: beliquored
word: besotted
word: besotten
word: bevvied
word: bibacious
word: bibulous
word: binned
word: bingoed
word: bladdered
word: blasted
word: blewed
word: blind
word: blind drunk
word: blitzed
word: blocked
word: blootered
word: blottoed
word: blue
word: bollocksed
word: bombed
word: boozy
word: bosky
word: bottled
word: Brahms
word: Brahms and Liszt
word: budgy
word: bungalowed
word: bungfu
word: burlin'
word: canned
word: clobbered
word: corned
word: cocked
word: cockeyed
word: crapulous
word: crocked
word: cunted
word: cup-shot
word: cup-shotten
word: cut
word: dead drunk
word: destroyed
word: disguised
word: drunk
word: drunk as a piper
word: drunked up
word: drunken
word: ebriated
word: ebriose
word: elephant's
word: elephant's trunk
word: elevated
word: faced
word: fap
word: fershnickered
word: flooey
word: floored
word: flush
word: flushed
word: flustered
word: fluted
word: fluthered
word: feeling no pain
word: fou
word: four sheets in the wind
word: fresh
word: fried
word: frosted
word: fuckered up
word: fuckfaced
word: fuddled
word: full
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: gassed
word: gattered
word: gee-eyed
word: gesuip
word: ginned
word: gished
word: glorious
word: groggified
word: groggy
word: half polluted
word: half cut
word: half lit
word: half seas over
word: hammered
word: have drink taken
word: have the sun in one's eyes
word: hazed
word: high as a Georgia pine
word: high as a kite
word: high
word: hog-whimpering
word: honkers
word: hooched up
word: hooted
word: hoovered
word: hosed
word: how came you so
word: impaired
word: in liquor
word: in one's altitudes
word: in one's cups
word: in the bag
word: in the drink
word: inebriate
word: inebriated
word: inebrious
word: insober
word: insobrietous
word: inter pocula
word: jaked
word: jarred
word: juiced
word: juiced up
word: kaylied
word: kisky
word: lamped
word: langered
word: langers
word: larruped
word: lash
word: lashed
word: lathered
word: legless
word: liquored up
word: liquory
word: lit
word: loaded
word: looped
word: loopy
word: loose
word: lubed
word: lubed up
word: lubricated
word: lushed
word: mad with it
word: maggot
word: maggoted
word: mashed
word: maudlin
word: medicated
word: messed up
word: monged
word: mortal
word: mortalled
word: Mozart and Liszt
word: muddled
word: muggy
word: mullered
word: munted
word: muzzy
word: MWI
word: nappy
word: newted
word: nimptopsical
word: obfuscated
word: obliviated
word: off one's box
word: off one's head
word: off one's tits
word: oiled
word: oiled up
word: Oliver
word: Oliver Twist
word: on the ran tan
word: ossified
word: out of it
word: out of one's box
word: out of one's face
word: out of one's head
word: out of sight
word: overcome
word: overrefreshed
word: overtaken
word: paralytic
word: parlatic
word: pickled
word: pie-eyed
word: pixilated
word: plastered
word: ploughed
word: plowed
word: polluted
word: potshot
word: potted
word: pounded
word: primed
word: puggled
word: quisby
word: raddled
word: rat-arsed
word: ratted
word: razzled
word: ripe
word: ripped
word: rolling
word: rubbered
word: sauced
word: sauced up
word: scammered
word: schloshed
word: schnockered
word: screwed
word: scuttered
word: sewed up
word: shedded
word: shellacked
word: shicker
word: shickered
word: shitty
word: skunked
word: slammed
word: slarmied
word: slizzard
word: sloppy drunk
word: sloshed
word: smashed
word: snockered
word: snookered
word: snozzled
word: snuffy
word: soaken
word: sodden
word: sotted
word: sottish
word: souped-up
word: soused
word: sozzled
word: sozzly
word: spanceled
word: spannered
word: spiffed
word: splashed
word: spongy
word: sprung
word: squiffed
word: steamboats
word: stewed
word: stinking
word: stinko
word: stoated
word: stoned
word: stonkered
word: stotious
word: strut
word: swacked
word: tanked
word: tanked up
word: temulent
word: temulentive
word: three sheets in the wind
word: three sheets to the wind
word: throwed
word: tight as a tick
word: tight
word: tilted
word: tippled
word: tipsy
word: tired and emotional
word: toasted
word: top-heavy
word: top-heavy with drink
word: toping
word: trashed
word: tuned
word: twatfaced
word: twisted
word: wastey
word: wazzed
word: wazzocked
word: well-oiled
word: wellied
word: wet
word: whittled
word: withered
word: wobbly
word: woozy
word: worse for liquor
word: worse for wear
word: wrecked
word: zoned
word: zonked
word: zooted
word: zorched
word: zotzed
glosses: Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness.
examples: text: To cap it all I had written a letter to Mara saying that we had to find a way out soon or I would commit suicide. It must have been a maudlin letter because when she telephoned me she said it was imperative to see me immediately.
ref: 1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 105:
text: On the rebound one passes into tears and pathos. Maudlin tears. I almost prefer the moments of agony. These are at least clean and honest. But the bath of self-pity, the wallow, the loathsome sticky-sweet pleasure of indulging it — that disgusts me.
ref: 1961, CS Lewis, A Grief Observed:
synonyms: word: emotional
word: overwrought
word: soppy
word: larmoyant
word: mournful
word: plaintful
word: teary
word: weepy
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
glosses: Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying.
glosses: Tearful, lachrymose.
Derived terms: maudlinism
maudlinize
maudlinly
maudlinness
maudlinwort
sweet maudlin
unmaudlin