maudlin

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Played as a maudlin admission that she’s a fallen woman, this scene would doom the play to a dusty footnote in O’Neill’s oeuvre.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 14, 2025

Lyrical but not maudlin, the book navigates family disagreements, competing philosophies and different ways the human spirit can manifest in the human body.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

He’s also invested his protagonist with a self-deprecating sense of humor that keeps his pessimism from veering into maudlin territory.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2025

But the film eventually turns maudlin, going so far as to include a prolonged scene where Adam says goodbye to the memory of his parents in a restaurant they used to frequent as a family.

From Salon • Apr. 3, 2025

It occurs to her that maybe Terry’s reluctance to take on this project has as much to do with avoiding this kind of maudlin moment as avoiding the work itself.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline