fulsome

Offensively abundant vs. merely abundant.

Fulsome means offensively excessive, often of praise: fulsome flattery. A common error is to use fulsome to mean abundant or generous, as in fulsome support from the board. For abundance, use generous or ample: generous support from the board.

Examples

Use The speech heaped fulsome praise on the owner. (excessive and insincere)

Use She sent generous thanks to the crew. (ample)

Avoid She sent fulsome thanks to the crew. (if you mean only that the thanks were ample)

Dictionaries now also list fulsome meaning “abundant.” However, many people still consider this use an error, and they judge the speaker who uses fulsome this way.