Gushing means bubbling over with warmth and emotion in a way that strikes others as overdone. Praise nobody quite believes.
It describes reviews, introductions and thank-you speeches, and a gushing tribute is one so warm that it undermines itself. British reserve makes the word a reliable criticism. There is a plain physical sense too, since gushing water pours out under pressure, and that is where the image of uncontrolled flow comes from. Effusive is the more formal version of the same complaint.
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word