fullsome
fullsome is the archaic form of fulsome.
Meaning of fulsome
Adjective
fulsome (comparative fulsomer or more fulsome, superlative fulsomest or most fulsome)
- Offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive.
- [T]he Weather exceeding hot, I entreated him to let me bathe in a River that was near. He conſented, and I immediately ſtripped myſelf ſtark naked, and went down ſoftly into the ſtream. It happened that a young Female Yahoo ſtanding behind a Bank, ſaw the whole proceeding, and enflamed by Deſire...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […]...
- Excessively flattering (connoting insincerity).
- And by hideous contrast, a redundant orator was making a speech to another gathering not thirty steps away, in fulsome laudation of "our glorious British liberties!"1889, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York, N.Y.: Charles L. Webster & Company, →OCLC...
- Characterised or marked by fullness; abundant, copious.
- The fulsome thanks of the war-torn nation lifted our weary spirits.
- Synonyms:
- profuse
- Fully developed; mature.
- Her fulsome timbre resonated throughout the hall.
Forms of fullsome
| comparative | more fullsome |
|---|---|
| superlative | most fullsome |
Questions about fullsome
- What is fullsome the archaic form of?
- Fullsome is the archaic form of fulsome.
Words near fullsome in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fullsome (page history and authors); fulsome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “fullsome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fullsome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
