sentimentalised

Gave excessive emotion

Sentimentalised is the British spelling of sentimentalized—the past tense of sentimentalize, meaning to treat something with excessive or affected emotion.

To sentimentalise is to romanticize or soften harsh realities: The film sentimentalised poverty, making it look quaint rather than devastating.

What gets sentimentalised loses its edge, becoming more palatable but less true.

romanticized

idealized

Made to seem perfect

glorifiedPraised beyond merit
rose-coloredPinkish or overly hopeful
sugarcoatedMade artificially pleasant

embellished · whitewashed · mythologized · prettified · sanitized · airbrushed · gilded · beautified · bowdlerized · starry-eyed

emotional

maudlin

Excessively tearful sentiment

schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
saccharineExaggeratedly sentimental
syrupyExcessively sweet or sentimental

weepy · lachrymose · overwrought · tearjerker · sappy · mawkish · soppy · treacly · cloying · gushing

nostalgic

wistful

Sadly longing for something

yearningIntense prolonged craving
longingIntense, persistent desire
reminiscenceRecalling past experiences

sepia-toned · rose-tinted · misty-eyed · bittersweet · homesick · retrospective · bygone · halcyon · yesteryear · dewy-eyed

Opposites

emotional treatment

sentimentalisedunsentimental

Lacking emotional softness

unromanticized · deglamorized · demythologized · stripped-down · unembellished

critical stance

sentimentaliseddeglamorised

Made less appealing

brutalized · hardened · laid bare · deconstructed · problematised

objectivity vs. bias

sentimentalisedobjectified

Treated as object, not person

documented · reported · rationalized

Family

sentimentalism, sentimentalist, sentimentalists, sentimentalise

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Timeless · Abstract · Everyday, not technical · Rated G