Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Offensively flattering or insincere. See Synonyms at unctuous.
- adj. Offensive to the taste or sensibilities.
- adj. Usage Problem Copious or abundant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full; full and plump; fat.
- Causing surfeit; cloying.
- Offensive from excess, as of praise or demonstrative affection; gross.
- Nauseous; offensive; disgusting.
- Lustful; wanton.
- Tending to obscenity; coarse: as, a fulsome epigram.
Wiktionary
- adj. Offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive.
- adj. Excessively flattering (connoting insincerity).
- adj. Abundant, copious.
- adj. Fully developed, mature.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Full; abundant; plenteous; not shriveled.
- adj. Offending or disgusting by overfullness, excess, or grossness; cloying; gross; nauseous; esp., offensive from excess of praise.
- adj. obsolete Lustful; wanton; obscene; also, tending to obscenity.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
Etymologies
- From Middle English fulsum, equivalent to full + -some. The meaning has evolved from an original positive connotation "abundant" to a neutral "plump" to a negative "overfed". In modern usage it can take on any of these inflections. See usage note (Wiktionary)
- Middle English fulsom, abundant, well-fed, arousing disgust : ful, full; see full1 + -som, adj. suff.; see -some1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“V. i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] _Fat_ means _dull_; so we say a _fatheaded_ fellow; _fat_ likewise means _gross_, and is sometimes used for _obscene_; and _fat_ is more congruent to _fulsome_ than _flat_.”
“The word fulsome is itself becoming incomprehensible.”
“Whichever approach reviewers of Suite Française took — whether they followed the ‘lost book by dead writer’ angle, or played the French guilt card — they all used the limited space left after biography to indulge in fulsome but often strangely detached praise.”
“Holocaust survivor and winner of many literary awards and lauded in fulsome tones”
““He came to us in fulsome state and told us of thee a thing which Heaven forfend; and the slave added a lie which it befitteth not to repeat, Allah preserve thy youth and sound sense and tongue of eloquence, and forbid to come from thee aught of offense!””
“Never refer to a fulsome bosom unless you want to get slugged by an intelligent woman.”
“And even that could scarce be termed fulsome flattery," I observed.”
“Can someone with contacts please explain to Sky News (and, surprisingly, Matthew Parris) what "fulsome" actually means? john miller”
“You were right about the 'fulsome praise' for single mothers, but you might want to look up the meaning of the word 'fulsome'.”
“The misspelling of "fulsome" is obvious, but the word itself invites problems.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fulsome’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 105 more...
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-some
How I love that old English suffix
tricksome, winsome, meddlesome, handsome, fulsome, lonesome, lovesome, noisome, wholesome, loathsome, cumbersome, lustsome and 16 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fulsome.
burntsox so what do you do with a contranym - do you use it smugly, knowing that you're right, or to you avoid for fear that no matter what you do you'll always be wrong. Oct 5, 2007
oroboros Contranymic in the sense of fulsome praise being both negative (insincere, ironic) and positive (abundantly meritorious). Sep 29, 2007