Treacliness

Treacliness describes an excessive, often cloying, display of sentimentality, sweetness, or flattery, often perceived as insincere or overly saccharine. It suggests a deliberate attempt to evoke emotional responses through the use of exaggerated language, gestures, or expressions. The term implies a lack of genuine feeling and can be used to critique art, literature, relationships, or even advertising campaigns where the emotional appeal feels forced and manipulative. Treacliness, therefore, is a critical assessment of a specific presentation, highlighting its potential to alienate the audience through an artificial display of emotion, and indicates a level of disingenuousness or superficiality.

Treacliness meaning with examples

• The novel’s descriptions were criticised for their treacliness, the author relying too heavily on overly descriptive prose and sentimental phrases to elicit an emotional response from the reader rather than showing the feelings through realistic dialogue.
• The politician's speech, while seemingly heartfelt, was ultimately dismissed as an exercise in treacliness; the exaggerated praise and promises left many viewers feeling patronised and unconvinced by his sincerity.
• Reviewers found the movie's romantic scenes saturated with treacliness, the sweeping orchestral score, and slow-motion shots creating an artificial and uncomfortable feeling of the love story.
• Despite the heartfelt intentions of the poem, its overt sentimentality dipped dangerously into treacliness. The overuse of flowery language and predictable rhymes seemed to detract from the original feeling conveyed.
• The commercial's reliance on images of adorable animals and sappy music was perceived as a deliberate attempt at treacliness, which was intended to manipulate the emotions of the viewer and drive sales.