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/sˌɛntəmˈɛntəl/ /sˌɛnəmˈɛntəl/ /sˌɛntəmˈɛnəl/ /sˌɛnəmˈɛnəl/ Listen

adjective

Sentimental adj.

1.

Having, expressing, or containing a sentiment or sentiments; abounding with moral reflections; containing a moral reflection; didactic. (Obsoles.) "Nay, ev'n each moral sentimental stroke, Where not the character, but poet, spoke, He lopped, as foreign to his chaste design, Nor spared a useless, though a golden line."

2.

Inclined to sentiment; having an excess of sentiment or sensibility; indulging the sensibilities for their own sake; artificially or affectedly tender; often in a reproachful sense. "A sentimental mind is rather prone to overwrought feeling and exaggerated tenderness."

3.

Addressed or pleasing to the emotions only, usually to the weaker and the unregulated emotions.

Synonyms: Romantic. Sentimental, Romantic. Sentimental usually describes an error or excess of the sensibilities; romantic, a vice of the imagination. The votary of the former gives indulgence to his sensibilities for the mere luxury of their excitement; the votary of the latter allows his imagination to rove for the pleasure of creating scenes of ideal enjoiment. "Perhaps there is no less danger in works called sentimental. They attack the heart more successfully, because more cautiously." "I can not but look on an indifferency of mind, as to the good or evil things of this life, as a mere romantic fancy of such who would be thought to be much wiser than they ever were, or could be."

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Etymology of 'Sentimental'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sentimental" Quotes from Famous Books

... many mountains in many lands. They did not interest him very much. He thought, however, that he could see now why people who had no mountains of their own should get excited about Switzerland. He understood a number of these sentimental things now, for that matter, which had been Greek to him three months before. Unreceptive as his philistinism may have seemed to these delightful youngsters, it was apparent enough to him that they had taught him a great deal. If he could not hope to ...

— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... of philanthropists was first directed to the ignorant condition of the freedmen in the South, in nine cases out of ten the practical effort to do something for their improvement was controlled by clergymen, and was largely influenced by sentimental considerations. The chief object seemed to be to grow a great crop of negro preachers, lawyers and doctors. The result was so disheartening that, fifteen years after the war was over, there were grave ...

— From Slave to College President - Being the Life Story of Booker T. Washington • Godfrey Holden Pike

... me," he thought; "after this I can defy every evil power to do me harm!" And he stood in his old attitude with his elbow leaning on the mantelpiece, while he answered Gwen's frivolous, and Winifred's sentimental, questions. ...

— By Berwen Banks • Allen Raine

... the least. When you condescend to these antics you force me to despise you. How can a woman who behaves like a spoiled child and talks like a sentimental novel have the audacity to dream of being a companion for a man of any sort of sense or character? (She gives an inarticulate cry and throws herself sobbing on his breast.) Come, don't cry, my dear Julia: you don't look half ...

— The Philanderer • George Bernard Shaw

... its supporters, nor yet brought about the dire disasters so freely threatened by its opponents. To the Roman Catholics of Ireland the grievance of an alien State Church had, since the settlement of the tithe question, lapsed into being little more than a sentimental one, so that practically the measure affected them little. As an institution, however, the position of the Irish State Church was undoubtedly a difficult one to defend, the very same arguments which tell most forcibly ...

— The Story Of Ireland • Emily Lawless

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