Fulsome vs Sufficient - What's the difference?
fulsome | sufficient |
Offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive.
*
* 1820 , , The Monastery , ch. 35:
Excessively flattering (connoting insincerity).
* 1889 , , A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , ch. 34:
* 1922 , , Ulysses , Episode 15—Circe:
Abundant, copious.
Fully developed, mature.
Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as,
Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
(archaic) Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
* 1668 , (Samuel Pepys), December 23 1668
self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
The smallest amount needed.
As adjectives the difference between fulsome and sufficient
is that fulsome is offensive to good taste, tactless, overzealous, excessive while sufficient is equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as.As a determiner sufficient is
the smallest amount needed.fulsome
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- 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.
- 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.
- 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!"
- Mrs. Bellingham: He addressed me in several handwritings with fulsome compliments as a Venus in furs.
- The fulsome thanks of the war-torn nation lifted our weary spirits.
- 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, unctuousDerived terms
* (l) * (l) * (l)sufficient
English
(Webster 1913)Adjective
(en adjective)- We have provision sufficient for the family
- This army is sufficient to defend the country.
- There is not sufficient access to the internet in the some small country villages.
- A two-week training course is sufficient to get a job in the coach-driving profession.
- ...to take the best ways we can, to make it known to the Duke of York; for, till Sir J. Minnes be removed, and a sufficient man brought into W. Pen's place, when he is gone, it is impossible for this Office ever to support itself.
Derived terms
* self-sufficient * sufficiency * sufficientlySee also
* adequate * ample * enough * plentyDeterminer
(en determiner)- Sufficient of us are against this idea that we should stop now.