sentimental

adjective

1)

she kept the vase for sentimental reasons

Syn:

nostalgic, tender, emotional, affectionate

Ant:

practical, dispassionate

2)

the film is too sentimental

Syn:

mawkish, overemotional, cloying, sickly, saccharine, sugary, oversweet; romantic, touching; informal slushy, mushy, weepy, tear-jerking, schmaltzy, lovey-dovey, gooey, drippy, cheesy, corny, cornball, sappy, hokey

Ant:

realistic, gritty

3)

she is sentimental about animals

Syn:

softhearted, tenderhearted, soft

••

sentimental, effusive, maudlin, mawkish, mushy, romantic

If you are moved to tears by a situation that does not really warrant such a response, you're likely to be called sentimental, an adjective used to describe a willingness to get emotional at the slightest prompting (a sentimental man who kept his dog's ashes in an urn on the mantel). Effusive applies to excessive or insincere displays of emotion, although it may be used in an approving sense (effusive in her gratitude for the help she had received). Maudlin derives from the name Mary Magdalene, who was often shown with her eyes swollen from weeping. It implies a lack of self-restraint, particularly in the form of excessive tearfulness. Mawkish carries sentimentality a step further, implying emotion so excessive that it provokes loathing or disgust (mawkish attempts to win the audience over). Although romantic at one time referred to an expression of deep feeling, nowadays it is often used disapprovingly to describe emotion that has little to do with the way things actually are and that is linked to an idealized vision of the way they should be (she had a romantic notion of what it meant to be a "starving artist"). Mushy suggests both excessive emotion or sentimentality and a contempt for romantic love (a mushy love story).