How to Use maudlin in a Sentence

maudlin

adjective
  • He became maudlin and started crying like a child.
  • 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
  • But only Kehlani with her un-maudlin yearning could’ve fleshed it out.
    — Alfred Soto, Pitchfork, 28 Apr. 2026
  • There’s something slightly maudlin about talking about work that’s so old.
    — Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 July 2023
  • The need to compress history leads to moments that are maudlin or heavy-handed.
    — Mike Hale, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2018
  • 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
  • Not even the mighty Adele can rescue the maudlin overdrive of this 25 ballad.
    — Chuck Arnold, Billboard, 4 May 2018
  • But the first round of donations were largely maudlin and uncreative.
    — Heather Hansman, Outside Online, 12 Feb. 2021
  • King was worried that the orchestral score underneath was too maudlin.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • The cast's quick wit keeps scenes from falling into maudlin territory.
    — Steve Heisler, Chicago Reader, 11 Apr. 2018
  • Most of its productions are soap operas with gaudy costumes and maudlin dialogue.
    — Jonathan Kaiman, latimes.com, 9 Apr. 2018
  • There’s nothing soft, nothing maudlin, nothing cheap about real kindness.
    — Claire Comstock-Gay, The Cut, 12 June 2017
  • 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
  • Not wanting to be maudlin, Morrison sometimes comes off as shallow.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2024
  • These revelations set the stage for six maudlin seasons of love and loss across multiple timelines.
    — Judy Berman, TIME, 24 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • The more maudlin this story gets, the harder del Toro presses PC buttons.
    — Armond White, National Review, 15 Dec. 2017
  • The song feels all the more maudlin when Lily’s father kicks her door in and throws Atlas to the ground, nearly beating him to death.
    — Coleman Spilde, Vulture, 12 Aug. 2024
  • 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 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
  • Though at times the plot can feel a tad tidy, the sight of a few seams doesn’t take away from this funny and poignant, bittersweet and moving — yet never maudlin — debut.
    — Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2025
  • There is a thin line between gratuitous and tasteful, maudlin and real, and that line is not located in the same place for every viewer.
    — Eliza Berman, TIME, 11 Oct. 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • The tragedy has a kind of inevitability that feels more Mishima than the maudlin Italian original.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2024
  • My first thought is of certain and immediate death, followed by a maudlin song orchestrating a montage of good moments.
    — New York Times, 20 Apr. 2018
  • 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
  • But even his most maudlin lyrics seemed to connect viscerally with his audience, most of whom were women of all ages but also with some of the men those women arrived with.
    — Timothy Finn, kansascity.com, 30 June 2017
  • 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
  • Readers may have been surprised to see Tomine turn toward such a maudlin vision of representation, after avoiding it for so long.
    — Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'maudlin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: