surfeit
Americannoun
-
excess; an excessive amount.
a surfeit of speechmaking.
- Synonyms:
- superfluity, superabundance
- Antonyms:
- lack
-
excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.
-
an uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.
-
general disgust caused by excess or satiety.
verb (used with object)
-
surfeits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
surfeited,
past participle, past
-
surfeiting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
surfeits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
surfeited,
past participle, past
-
surfeiting
present participle
-
to eat or drink to excess.
-
to suffer from the effects of overindulgence in eating or drinking.
-
to indulge to excess in anything.
noun
-
(usually foll by of) an excessive or immoderate amount
-
overindulgence, esp in eating or drinking
-
disgust, nausea, etc, caused by such overindulgence
verb
-
(tr) to supply or feed excessively; satiate
-
archaic (intr) to eat, drink, or be supplied to excess
-
obsolete (intr) to feel uncomfortable as a consequence of overindulgence
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
surfeitsimple
-
surfeitssimple
-
have surfeitedperfect
-
has surfeitedperfect
-
am surfeitingprogressive
-
are surfeitingprogressive
-
is surfeitingprogressive
-
have been surfeitingperfect progressive
-
has been surfeitingperfect progressive
Past
-
surfeitedsimple
-
had surfeitedperfect
-
was surfeitingprogressive
-
were surfeitingprogressive
-
had been surfeitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of surfeit
1250–1300; (noun) Middle English sorfete, surfait < Middle French surfait, surfet (noun use of past participle of surfaire to overdo), equivalent to sur- sur- 1 + fait < Latin factus, past participle of facere to do ( see fact); (v.) sorfeten, derivative of the noun
Explanation
Steve baked a surfeit of jam tarts. Steve ate a surfeit of jam tarts. Steve surfeited himself on jam tarts. Whether surfeit is a noun or a verb (as in "overabundance" or "gorge"), Steve is likely to end up with a bellyache. Overabundance, glut, gorge, and cloy: These are all synonyms for surfeit, and they all convey a sense of too-much-ness, as does the Old French root of the word — surfaire, "to overdo." When it is used in reference to food or eating, surfeit tends to suggest indulging to the point of sickness or disgust. In other contexts, though, the meaning is not necessarily negative: "A surfeit of kindness," for example, would hardly be a bad thing.
Vocabulary lists containing surfeit
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There's not exactly a surfeit of available and convincing candidates and Clarke is a proven operator who has become a serial qualifier for major tournaments.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
But this spring holds a surfeit of Scripture-inspired scripted alternatives.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
As a businesswoman, a single mother and a highly sensitive human, Moore made it through life thanks to a surfeit of loving kindness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026
Thin characterizations, bland acting and a surfeit of bubbly cuteness combine to make a throw-pillow of a movie: It’s soft and decorative without being particularly useful or interesting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Everywhere it reflected the authoritarian spandrels of his character, from its surfeit of policemen to its strict rules against picking flowers.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Increasingly in the '80s, Halloween has become an escapist extravaganza for adults, a trickless treat that more closely resembles Mardi Gras than the candy-and-apple surfeits of yesteryear.
From Time Magazine Archive
That is, surfeits are dangerous; but the proverb which follows shows, as usual, that there is no rule without an exception.
From The Proverbs of Scotland by Alexander Hislop
A man never surfeits of too much honesty.
From Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases With a Copious Index of Principal Words by Thomas Preston
Sooner or later love, which is loose, surfeits and sours.
From The Bishop of Cottontown A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills by John Trotwood Moore
The burgesses of a Scottish borough are rendered, by their limited means of luxury, inaccessible to gout, surfeits, and all the comfortable chronic diseases which are attendant on wealth and indolence.
From The Surgeon's Daughter by Sir Walter Scott
As a theater critic surfeited with plays, radio dramas worked best for me as an unplanned diversion in my car.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2025
Theatergoers, surfeited with entertainment options at home, have been less inclined to commit to season subscriptions, placing more pressure on programming to come up with sure-fire hits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2023
At this point, I'm so surfeited on natural spectacles, it's faintly disappointing not to see a troupe of all these things executing Busby Berkeley maneuvers for my personal delectation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2013
Recently, to whet a possibly surfeited U. S. appetite, Disney announced he would withdraw the English version from U. S. circulation.
From Time Magazine Archive
The anger will not hold; the puppy is too easily surfeited.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
What the Valentine's cards forget is that the lovesick duke who speaks the words wants to overeat so that "surfeiting/ The appetite may sicken, and so die."
From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2013
They were easier to swallow because they lacked liver's surfeiting taste, and a dessertspoonful in water or tomato juice once a day was sufficient for health.
From Time Magazine Archive
Soon the smoke ascended among the trees, impregnated with savory incense, not heavy, dull, and surfeiting, like 51 the steam of cookery indoors, but sprightly and piquant.
From English: Composition and Literature by W. F. (William Franklin) Webster
Madame recommenced advising him; he shook his head, laughing, rose and bid her good-morning, with courtesy, but still with the regardless air of one whom too much unsolicited attention was surfeiting and spoiling.
From Villette by Charlotte Brontë
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.—
From Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries by Edward W. (Edward Woodall) Naylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
