Standard Lemma guide

maudlin

adj · name · noun · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
  • cot-caught-merger: /ˈmɑːd.lɪn/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M AO1 D L IH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mushy, sappy, schmaltzy, drippy, soupy, slushy, Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, a sheet in the wind, a sheet in the wind's eye, bedrunken, befuddled, beliquored, besotted, besotten, bevvied, bibacious, bibulous, binned, bingoed, bladdered, blasted, blewed, blind, blind drunk, blitzed, blocked, blootered, blottoed, blue, bollocksed, bombed, boozy, bosky, bottled, Brahms, Brahms and Liszt, budgy, bungalowed, bungfu, burlin', canned, clobbered, corned, cocked, cockeyed, crapulous, crocked, cunted, cup-shot, cup-shotten, cut, dead drunk, destroyed, disguised, drunk, drunk as a piper, drunked up, drunken, ebriated, ebriose, elephant's, elephant's trunk, elevated, faced, fap, fershnickered, flooey, floored, flush, flushed, flustered, fluted, fluthered, feeling no pain, fou, four sheets in the wind, fresh, fried, frosted, fuckered up, fuckfaced, fuddled, full, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gassed, gattered, gee-eyed, gesuip, ginned, gished, glorious, groggified, groggy, half polluted, half cut, half lit, half seas over, hammered, have drink taken, have the sun in one's eyes, hazed, high as a Georgia pine, high as a kite, high, hog-whimpering, honkers, hooched up, hooted, hoovered, hosed, how came you so, impaired, in liquor, in one's altitudes, in one's cups, in the bag, in the drink, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, insober, insobrietous, inter pocula, jaked, jarred, juiced, juiced up, kaylied, kettled, kisky, lamped, langered, langers, larruped, lash, lashed, lathered, legless, liquored up, liquory, lit, loaded, looped, loopy, loose, lubed, lubed up, lubricated, lushed, mabok, mad with it, maggot, maggoted, mashed, maudlin, medicated, messed up, monged, mortal, mortalled, Mozart and Liszt, muddled, muggy, mullered, munted, muzzy, MWI, nappy, newted, nimptopsical, obfuscated, obliviated, off one's box, off one's head, off one's tits, oiled, oiled up, Oliver, Oliver Twist, on the ran tan, ossified, out of it, out of one's box, out of one's face, out of one's head, out of sight, overcome, overrefreshed, overtaken, paralytic, parlatic, pickled, pie-eyed, pixilated, plastered, ploughed, plowed, polluted, potshot, potted, pounded, primed, puggled, quisby, raddled, ratfaced, razzled, ripe, ripped, rolling, rubbered, sauced, sauced up, scammered, schloshed, schnockered, screwed, scuttered, sewed up, shedded, shellacked, shicker, shickered, shitty, skunked, slammed, slarmied, slizzard, sloppy drunk, sloshed, smashed, snockered, snookered, snozzled, snuffy, soaken, sodden, soshed, sotted, sottish, souped-up, soused, sozzled, sozzly, spanceled, spannered, spiffed, splashed, spongy, sprung, squiffed, steamboats, stewed, stinking, stinko, stoated, stoned, stonkered, stotious, strut, swacked, tanked, tanked up, temulent, temulentive, three sheets in the wind, three sheets to the wind, throwed, tight as a tick, tight, tilted, tippled, tipsy, tired and emotional, toasted, top-heavy, top-heavy with drink, toping, trashed, tuned, twatfaced, twisted, wastey, wazzed, wazzocked, well-oiled, wellied, wet, whittled, withered, wobbly, woozy, worse for liquor, worse for wear, wrecked, zoned, zonked, zooted, zorched, zotzed

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: emotional, overwrought, soppy, larmoyant, mournful, plaintful, teary, weepy, bathetic, cheesy, squishy, corny, drippy, gooey, hokey, icky, kitsch, kitschy, maudlin, mawkish, mushy, overemotional, oversentimental, sappy, schmaltzy, sickly sweet, slushy, soupy, syrupy, treacly, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Tearful, lachrymose.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cryey, larmoyant, weepy, crysome, lachrymate, lachrymose, maudlin, moist, sobful, tearful, teary, watery

Antonyms: none provided

4

name

Meaning 4

A surname originating as a matronymic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

name

Meaning 5

Alternative form of Magdalen (“Magdalen College, Oxford”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, alternative

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

The Magdalene; Mary Magdalene.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

Topics: Christianity

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

Either of two aromatic plants, costmary or sweet yarrow.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

A Magdalene house; a brothel.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

adjective satellite

Meaning 9

effusively or insincerely emotional

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a bathetic novel
  • maudlin expressions of sympathy
  • mushy effusiveness
  • a schmaltzy song
  • sentimental soap operas
  • slushy poetry

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bathetic, drippy, hokey, mawkish, kitschy, mushy, schmaltzy, schmalzy, sentimental, soppy, soupy, slushy

Antonyms: none provided

History

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).

English surname, from Middle English Maudeleyn. Doublet of Madeleine, Magdalen, Magdalena, and Magdalene.

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: դյուրազգաց (dyurazgacʻ) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Catalan: ploramiques — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Dutch: sentimenteel — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Dutch: schreierig — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Dutch: melodramatisch — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: histrionique — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: sentimental — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: pleurnicheur — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: maniéré — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: mièvre — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • French: affecté — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • German: rührselig — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • German: selbstmitleidig — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Hungarian: elérzékenyült — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Hungarian: érzelmeskedő — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Japanese: 泣き上戸の (naki jōgo no) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Polish: łzawy — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Portuguese: melindroso — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Russian: сентиментальный (sentimentalʹnyj) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Russian: расчувствовавшийся (rasčuvstvovavšijsja) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Spanish: lloraduelos — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Spanish: llorón — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Spanish: llorica — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Spanish: lamentoso — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Swedish: gråtmild — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Swedish: blödig — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Swedish: sentimental — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Ukrainian: сентиментальний (sentymentalʹnyj) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Ukrainian: розчулений (rozčulenyj) — extravagantly or excessively sentimental; self-pitying
  • Bulgarian: сълзливо сантиментален (sǎlzlivo santimentalen) — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Catalan: ploramiques — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • French: larmoyant — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • French: démonstratif — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • French: hystérique — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • French: pleurnicheur — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Galician: choromica — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Galician: mexerica — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • German: larmoyant — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • German: verheult — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Hungarian: ömlengős — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Hungarian: érzelgős — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Hungarian: szenvelgős — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Italian: piagnucoloso — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Italian: sdolcinato — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Japanese: 感傷的な (kanshō-tekina) — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Russian: слезливый (slezlivyj) — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Spanish: sensiblero — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Spanish: llorón — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Spanish: llorica — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Swedish: blödig — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Swedish: gråtmild — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
  • Ukrainian: плаксивий (plaksyvyj) — affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner
Real reading context

maudlin in complete knowledge articles