Fulsome FUL'SOME, a.
1. Nauseous; offensive.
He that brings fulsome objects to my view, with nauseous images my fancy fills.
2. Rank; offensive to the smell; as a rank and fulsome smell.
3. Lustful; as fulsome ewes.
4. Tending to obscenity; as a fulsome epigram.
These are the English definitions of fulsome, but I have never witnessed such applications of the word in the United States. It seems then that full and foul are radically the same word, the primary sense of which is stuffed, crowded, from the sense of putting on or in. In the United States, the compound fullsome takes its signification from full, in the sense of cloying or satiating, and in England, fulsome takes its predominant sense from foulness.

fulsome adj 1: 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" [syn: buttery, fulsome, oily, oleaginous, smarmy, soapy, unctuous]

fulsome adjective Etymology: Middle English fulsom copious, cloying, from full + -som -some Date: 13th century 1. a. characterized by abundance ; copious <describes in fulsome detail — G. N. Shuster> <fulsome bird life. The feeder overcrowded — Maxine Kumin> b. generous in amount, extent, or spirit <the passengers were fulsome in praise of the plane's crew — Don Oliver> <a fulsome victory for the far left — Bruce Rothwell> <the greetings have been fulsome, the farewells tender — Simon Gray> c. being full and well developed <she was in generally fulsome, limpid voice — Thor Eckert, Jr.> 2. aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive <fulsome lies and nauseous flattery — William Congreve> <the devil take thee for a…fulsome rogue — George Villiers> 3. exceeding the bounds of good taste ; overdone <the fulsome chromium glitter of the escalators dominating the central hall — Lewis Mumford> 4. excessively complimentary or flattering ; effusive <an admiration whose extent I did not express, lest I be thought fulsome — A. J. Liebling> • fulsomely adverb • fulsomeness noun Usage: The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense 2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century, is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense 1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the 20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival. Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity. Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure whether such an expression as “fulsome praise” is meant in sense 1b or in sense 4.

fulsome
adj.
1 disgusting by excess of flattery, servility, or expressions of affection; excessive, cloying.
2 disp. copious.
Usage:
In fulsome praise, fulsome means 'excessive', not 'generous'.
Derivatives:
fulsomely adv. fulsomeness n.
Etymology: ME f. FULL(1) + -SOME(1)

fulsome If you describe expressions of praise, apology, or gratitude as fulsome, you disapprove of them because they are exaggerated and elaborate, so that they sound insincere. Newspapers have been fulsome in their praise of the former president. = extravagant ADJ [disapproval]

FULSOME was my What's The Word? choice for Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008

Fulsome \Ful"some\, a. [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.

fulsome a. 1. Gross, excessive, offensively extravagant, offensive, nauseous. 2. Nauseous, nauseating, offensive, disgusting, repulsive. 3. Ribald, coarse, gross, tending to obscenity, questionable.

299 Moby Thesaurus words for "fulsome": Fescennine, Gongoresque, Johnsonian, Rabelaisian, abhorrent, abject, abominable, adulatory, affected, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, bad-smelling, barfy, base, bawdy, beastly, bedizened, beggarly, below contempt, beneath contempt, big-sounding, blameworthy, bland, blandishing, blarneying, blue, bombastic, brackish, brutal, buttery, cajoling, canting, cheesy, cloying, complimentary, contemptible, convoluted, courtierly, courtly, crude, crummy, debased, declamatory, degraded, deplorable, depraved, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disarming, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, elevated, enormous, euphuistic, excessive, execrable, extravagant, exuberant, fair-spoken, fawning, fecal, fetid, filthy, fine-spoken, flagrant, flamboyant, flaming, flashy, flattering, flaunting, forbidding, foul, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, frowsty, frowy, frowzy, funky, fusty, gamy, garish, gaudy, glib, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant, grave, graveolent, grievous, gross, gushing, hateful, heinous, hero-worshiping, high, high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-sounding, highfalutin, holier-than-thou, honey-mouthed, honey-tongued, honeyed, horrible, horrid, hypocritical, icky, idolatrous, ignoble, ill-smelling, impure, infamous, ingratiating, inkhorn, insincere, insinuating, ithyphallic, labyrinthine, lamentable, lavish, lewd, lexiphanic, lionizing, little, loathsome, lofty, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, lurid, maggoty, magniloquent, malodorous, mangy, mawkish, mealy-mouthed, mealymouthed, mean, measly, mephitic, meretricious, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy, miserable, moldy, monstrous, musty, nasty, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nefarious, nidorous, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, obsequious, odious, odorous, offensive, oily, oily-tongued, oleaginous, olid, orotund, ostentatious, outrageous, overappreciative, overdone, overelaborate, overinvolved, overpraising, overripe, overwrought, paltry, pecksniffian, pedantic, petty, pharisaical, pitiable, pitiful, poisonous, poky, pompous, poor, pornographic, pretentious, profuse, putrid, rancid, rank, raunchy, reasty, reasy, rebarbative, reechy, reeking, reeky, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rhetorical, ribald, rotten, sad, salacious, sanctimonious, satiating, sating, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, sensational, sensationalistic, sententious, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, showy, sickening, slick, slimy, slobbery, small, smarmy, smellful, smelling, smelly, smoking-room, smooth, smooth-spoken, smooth-tongued, smug, smutty, soapy, soft-soaping, soft-spoken, sonorous, sordid, spoiled, squalid, stenchy, stilted, stinking, strong, stuffy, suave, suave-spoken, sulfurous, sultry, sycophantic, tall, terrible, too bad, tortuous, uncensorious, unchaste, unclean, uncritical, uncriticizing, unctuous, unmentionable, unprintable, unrepeatable, unreproachful, vile, villainous, vomity, weevily, wheedling, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched, yucky

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