sappiness
Cloying emotional sweetness
Sappiness is excessive sentimentality—emotion that feels overdone or unearned.
A movie's sappiness might involve tearful reunions and swelling music; a greeting card's sappiness lies in its cloying verse.
The word carries gentle mockery: I know it's pure sappiness, but I cried anyway.
From sap in its sense of sticky tree fluid, suggesting something cloyingly sweet.
Exaggeratedly sentimental
- syrupyExcessively sweet or sentimental
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
- sugaryContaining much sweetener
- cloyingExcessively sweet or sentimental
gooey · treacly · corny · cheesy · gushy · soapy · overwrought · maudlin
Excessive tender emotion
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- tendernessGentle, caring quality
- heartstringsDeep emotional attachments
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
poignancy · bittersweet · heartfelt · touching · emotive · soulful · yearning · longing
Viscous plant secretion
- mapleSap-yielding hardwood tree
- pineCone-bearing evergreen
- amberHardened ancient tree secretion
- syrupThick sugar liquid
viscous · sticky · exudate · gum · latex · pitch · secretion · mucilage
Exaggeratedly emotional for effect
- histrionicExaggeratedly emotional in behavior
- hammyExcessively theatrical in style
- overactingExcessive theatrical performance
- exaggeratedMade larger than reality
overblown · campy · soap-opera · bombastic · grandiose · florid · ostentatious · overwrought
saccharine
Exaggeratedly sentimental
- syrupyExcessively sweet or sentimental
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
- sugaryContaining much sweetener
cloying · gooey · treacly · corny · cheesy · gushy · soapy · overwrought · maudlin · soppy
sentimentality
Excessive tender emotion
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- tendernessGentle, caring quality
- heartstringsDeep emotional attachments
wistfulness · poignancy · bittersweet · heartfelt · touching · emotive · soulful · yearning · longing · melancholy
resin
Viscous plant secretion
syrup · viscous · sticky · exudate · gum · latex · pitch · secretion · mucilage · oozing
theatrical
Exaggeratedly emotional for effect
- histrionicExaggeratedly emotional in behavior
- hammyExcessively theatrical in style
- overactingExcessive theatrical performance
exaggerated · overblown · campy · soap-opera · bombastic · grandiose · florid · ostentatious · overwrought · emoting
sappinesscynicism
Distrust of human sincerity
coldness · hard-heartedness · emotional detachment · hardheadedness · callousness
sappinesshardheadedness
Inflexible persistence in opinion
pragmatism · realism · skepticism · tough-mindedness · levelheadedness
sappinesssophistication
Cultured elegance and complexity
edginess · subtlety · grittiness · astringency · irony
sap, sappy, sapling, saplings, sapper, sappier, sapwood, sapsucker, sapless