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
“What happened to the peace dividend?” economist Augusto Lopez-Claros asked last year, referring to the supposed surfeit of funds that was to flow after the end of the Cold War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
The few other highlights in the show are overwhelmed by a surfeit of lifeless abstractions, eye-glazing prints and vacuous conceptual works.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
A smooth barkless tree, blackened by a surfeit of green water.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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
The juice of the arum was considered good for the plague, and Gerarde tells us that Henry VIII. was, "wont to drink the distilled water of broom-flowers against surfeits and diseases thereof arising."
From The Folk-lore of Plants by T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton) Dyer
Hunger, indeed, was his normal state; semi-starvation, alternating with surfeits of cheap and unwholesome food, brought about an unhealthy condition of body.
From The Unclassed by George Gissing
"Henry the Eighth, a prince of famous memory, was wonte to drinke the distilled water of broome flowers against surfeits and diseases therefrom arising."
From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William Thomas Fernie
Says Caesar, If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones.
From Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Arthur Sherbo
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
You’d think those of us who are keeping tabs might be surfeited by now, but a true theater lover can never have too much Sondheim.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 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
Have listeners become surfeited with the continuous problems of Helen Trent and Our Gal Sunday?
From Time Magazine Archive
That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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
He had always been bitterly contemptuous of the men that, surfeiting their appetites, showed at the impotent last a cheap repentance.
From The Three Black Pennys A Novel by Joseph Hergesheimer
The king came from Theobalds, though he had been very little at ease with a scouring, taken with surfeiting by eating grapes, the prince and most of the lords of the council attending him.
From Notes and Queries, Number 238, May 20, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Various
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.
From The Redemption of David Corson by Charles Frederic Goss
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.
