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Fulsome vs Sufficient - What's the difference?

fulsome | sufficient |

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)
  • 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)

    sufficient

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as,
  • 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.
  • Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
  • A two-week training course is sufficient to get a job in the coach-driving profession.
  • (archaic) Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
  • * 1668 , (Samuel Pepys), December 23 1668
  • ...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.
  • self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
  • Derived terms

    * self-sufficient * sufficiency * sufficiently

    See also

    * adequate * ample * enough * plenty

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • The smallest amount needed.
  • Sufficient of us are against this idea that we should stop now.

    Statistics

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