maudlin

plural maudlins

1. obsoleteChristianityThe Magdalene; Mary Magdalene.First known use 14th–16th c.

   for alle they worſchipden hir ſouereynly / as worthy was / but ſpecially Mawdelayne / that wolde neuere departe fro hir.

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

2. historicalEither of two aromatic plants, costmary or sweet yarrow.First known use 15th c.

   Common Maudlin have somewhat long and narrow leaves, snipped about the edges.

   1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 186

3. obsoleteA Magdalene house; a brothel.First known use 17th c.

comparative more maudlin · superlative most maudlin

1. Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness.First known use 17th c.

   He was a drunkard, and had not known it. What he had fondly imagined was a pleasant exhilaration had been maudlin intoxication.

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

   3 more examples

   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?

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

   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.

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

   ...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.

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

   Synonyms: mushy, sappy, schmaltzy, drippy, soupy, slushy, Adrian Quist, adrip

2. Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying.First known use 17th c.

   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.

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1961, CS Lewis, A Grief Observed

   Synonyms: emotional, overwrought, soppy, larmoyant, mournful, plaintful, teary, weepy

3. obsoleteTearful, lachrymose.First known use 17th–19th c.

   Synonyms: cryey, larmoyant, weepy, cryey, crysome, lachrymate, lachrymose, larmoyant

plural Maudlins · alternative Maudling · alternative Maulding

1. A surname originating as a matronymic.
2. alternativeAlternative form of Magdalen (“Magdalen College, Oxford”).

   At the same school we met a young man of small fortune, and in a subordinate situation at Maudlin.

   1892, Lilian M. Quiller-Couch, Reminiscences of Oxford, page 153