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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The tragedy has a kind of inevitability that feels more Mishima than the maudlin Italian original.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Not wanting to be maudlin, Morrison sometimes comes off as shallow.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2024
  • The story of a baby passed from home to home could have been maudlin in the wrong hands, but Lamb brings humor to it to by having every voice, sound effect, and musical note performed by a male duo called Les Mimes Electriques.
    — Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025

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.

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