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''maudlin'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250818152211-00-⌔

maudlin - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

maudlin (plural maudlins)

  • (obsolete, Christianity) The Magdalene; Mary Magdalene. [14th–16th c.]
    • ✤ for alle they worſchipden hir ſouereynly/as worthy was/but ſpecially Mawdelayne/that wolde neuere departe fro hir.1
  • (historical) Either of two aromatic plants, costmary or sweet yarrow. [from 15th c.]
    • ✤ Common Maudlin have somewhat long and narrow leaves, snipped about the edges.2
  • (obsolete) A Magdalene house; a brothel. [17th c.]

Adjective

maudlin (comparative more maudlin, superlative most maudlin)

  • Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness. [from 17th c.]
    • ✤ Synonyms: mushy, sappy, schmaltzy, drippy, soupy, slushy; see also Thesaurus: drunk
    • ✤ 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?3
    • ✤ 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.4
    • ✤ He was a drunkard, and had not known it. What he had fondly imagined was a pleasant exhilaration had been maudlin intoxication.5
    • ✤ …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.6
  • Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying. [from 17th c.]
    • ✤ Synonyms: emotional, overwrought, soppy, larmoyant, mournful, plaintful, teary, weepy; see also Thesaurus: mawkish, Thesaurus: sad
    • ✤ 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.7
    • ✤ 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.8
  • (obsolete) Tearful, lachrymose. [17th–19th c.]
    • ✤ Synonyms: cryey, larmoyant, weepy; see also Thesaurus: tearful

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).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
    • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈmɑːd.lɪn/
    • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. c. 1400, Nicholas Love, transl., The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ: ↩

  2. 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 186: ↩

  3. 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC: ↩

  4. 1894, George du Maurier, “Part Third”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 165: ↩

  5. c. 1900, O. Henry, The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball: ↩

  6. 1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald: ↩

  7. 1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 105: ↩

  8. 1961, CS Lewis, A Grief Observed: ↩

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