FULSOME

buttery, fulsome, oily, oleaginous, smarmy, soapy, unctuous

(adjective) unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; “buttery praise”; “gave him a fulsome introduction”; “an oily sycophantic press agent”; “oleaginous hypocrisy”; “smarmy self-importance”; “the unctuous Uriah Heep”; “soapy compliments”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

fulsome (comparative fulsomer, superlative fulsomest)

Offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive.

Excessively flattering (connoting insincerity).

Marked by fullness; abundant, copious.

Fully developed; mature.

Usage notes

• Common usage tends toward the negative connotation, and using fulsome in the sense of abundant, copious, or mature may lead to confusion without contextual prompts.

Synonyms

• (offensive): gross

• (abundant, copious): profuse

• (excessively flattering): effusive, unctuous

Source: Wiktionary


Ful"some, a. Etym: [Full, a. + -some.]

1. Full; abundant; plenteous; not shriveled. [Obs.] His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse grew fulsome, fair, and fresh. Golding.

2. Offending or disgusting by overfullness, excess, or grossness; cloying; gross; nauseous; esp., offensive from excess of praise; as, fulsome flattery. And lest the fulsome artifice should fail Themselves will hide its coarseness with a veil. Cowper.

3. Lustful; wanton; obscene; also, tending to obscenity. [Obs.] "Fulsome ewes." Shak.

– Ful"some*ly, adv.

– Ful"some*ness, n. Dryden.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

27 April 2024

GREAT

(adjective) remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree or magnitude or effect; “a great crisis”; “had a great stake in the outcome”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest coffee shop is the Al Masaa Café, which has 1,050 seats. The coffee shop was inaugurated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 13 August 2014.

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