How to Use maudlin in a Sentence

maudlin

adjective

• He became maudlin and started crying like a child.
• Toward the end, though, the doc takes on a maudlin air.
  — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2017
• The chorus is huge, but the best part is the maudlin bridge, which just begs to be dragged out.
  — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 26 Sep. 2019
• Not even the mighty Adele can rescue the maudlin overdrive of this 25 ballad.
  — Chuck Arnold, Billboard, 4 May 2018
• Compare the maudlin strings of Mad Men’s theme music with the bouncing tubas of Curb’s.
  — Adam Wilson, Harper's magazine, 16 Sep. 2019
• But the current-day trip to Japan, which makes up the bulk of the novel, is marked by more pat and maudlin plot twists.
  — John Williams, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2016
• Never maudlin, but deeply touching, like the Get Back movie.
  — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2023
• Kevin King's loss completes the maudlin Monday for US tennis: 3-12.
  — Stanley Kay, SI.com, 16 Jan. 2018
• The more maudlin this story gets, the harder del Toro presses PC buttons.
  — Armond White, National Review, 15 Dec. 2017
• The need to compress history leads to moments that are maudlin or heavy-handed.
  — Mike Hale, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2018
• There’s something slightly maudlin about talking about work that’s so old.
  — Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 July 2023
• Pitfalls of maudlin cliché surround the subject, but Mr. Roberts has skirted them, above all through his bold choice of music.
  — Brian Seibert, New York Times, 11 Dec. 2019
• Yet watching the symbols of an epoch implode makes me wistful, almost maudlin.
  — Ana Veciana-Suarez, miamiherald, 26 Mar. 2018
• But the first round of donations were largely maudlin and uncreative.
  — Heather Hansman, Outside Online, 12 Feb. 2021
• The Merseyside masters of maudlin pop are on a 40th-anniversary tour, but don’t expect a sulk down memory lane.
  — Michael Andor Brodeur, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Mar. 2018
• King was worried that the orchestral score underneath was too maudlin.
  — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
• The subject matter is grim, but the tone is motley and irreverent, veering from maudlin realism to campy notes on the camps.
  — The New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2022
• While there were moments during the evening that might have brought a tear to one’s eye, the tribute was neither maudlin or celebratory.
  — Karen Bliss, Billboard, 8 Nov. 2017
• The cast's quick wit keeps scenes from falling into maudlin territory.
  — Steve Heisler, Chicago Reader, 11 Apr. 2018
• Death, the only long-term certainty for any of us, permeates these episodes, although not in an overly maudlin way.
  — Judy Berman, Time, 28 Feb. 2022
• Israelite gives the images some grit and visual interest but the story just spends too much time on the maudlin coming-of-age and teambuilding.
  — Lindsey Bahr, Orange County Register, 23 Mar. 2017
• Even so, there's nothing maudlin or nostalgic about this reflective, measured goodbye from one of the genre's greats.
  — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 19 Nov. 2019
• Most of its productions are soap operas with gaudy costumes and maudlin dialogue.
  — Jonathan Kaiman, latimes.com, 9 Apr. 2018
• Tumarkin takes up subjects like youth suicide and the plight of homeless people in North Melbourne, but her approach is never maudlin.
  — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2019
• But this is writer-director Matt Sivertson’s first film, and he and his cast and crew are able to offer only a maudlin drama that inspires eye rolls rather than tears.
  — Kimber Myers, latimes.com, 28 June 2018
• His version begins in the usual maudlin mode: Interweaving horn lines arranged by Isaac Hayes set the scene as if drawing a stage curtain.
  — Emily Lordi, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2017
• Another is my sense that the early work, especially the Blue Period, was maudlin, while much of the late work was self-indulgent.
  — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2023
• We are also treated to several rather maudlin scenes of the father teaching his son about the fairies prior to his disappearance.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 13 June 2020
• Without ever becoming maudlin or didactic, Glück traces both an epoch and an act of commemorating the dead.
  — Daniel Felsenthal, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2024
• Tear-jerking in the most manipulative ways, the film is helped somewhat by the sincerity of the performances — specifically that of McCarthy, who somehow makes some of this maudlin nonsense work.
  — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 May 2024

Last Updated: 13 Nov 2024