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Fulsome vs Generous - What's the difference?

fulsome | generous |

As adjectives the difference between fulsome and generous

is that fulsome is offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive while generous is of noble birth.

fulsome

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive.
  • *
    • 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 inflamed by desire . . . embraced me after a most fulsome manner.
  • * 1820 , , The Monastery , ch. 35:
    • You will hear the advanced enfans perdus , as the French call them, and so they are indeed, namely, children of the fall, singing unclean and fulsome ballads of sin and harlotrie.
  • Excessively flattering (connoting insincerity).
  • * 1889 , , A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , ch. 34:
    • 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!"
  • * 1922 , , Ulysses , Episode 15—Circe:
    • Mrs. Bellingham: He addressed me in several handwritings with fulsome compliments as a Venus in furs.
  • Abundant, copious.
    • The fulsome thanks of the war-torn nation lifted our weary spirits.
  • Fully developed, mature.
    • Her fulsome timbre resonated throughout the hall.

    Usage notes

    * Common usage tends toward the negative connotation, and using fulsome in the sense of abundant'', ''copious'', or ''mature may lead to confusion without contextual prompts.

    Synonyms

    * (offensive) gross * profuse * (excessively flattering) effusive, unctuous

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l)

    generous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Of noble birth.
  • Noble in behaviour or actions; principled, not petty; kind, magnanimous.
    • Thank you for your generous words.
  • Willing to give and share unsparingly; showing a readiness to give more (especially money) than is expected or needed.
    • She's been extremely generous with her winnings.
  • Large, more than ample, copious.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    * generosity