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
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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:
May’s surfeit was wider than the C$2.68 billion expected by economists, and it follows April’s upwardly revised C$3.41 billion surplus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
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
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
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
Just looking at them reminds me of Christmas and the sticky feeling after eating too many, the surfeit and glut.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
The company built pellet plants across the southern U.S., moving into parts of the pinery where pulp and paper mills had closed and left behind surfeits of sawdust, wood chips and cheap pulpwood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
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 Opera with its lemans, the pink boudoir and its flossy hangings, the feast and its surfeits; we have even seen Moliere's doctor reappear, such need has this man of sarcasm and grotesqueness.
From Balzac by Frederick Lawton
So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief; 'T is but surmis'd whiles thou art standing by, As one that surfeits thinking on a want.
From King Henry VI, Part 2 by William Shakespeare
Not that I have beaten you, but beaten one that will be beaten: one whose dull bodie will require launcing: As surfeits doe the diet, spring and full.
From A King, and No King by John Fletcher
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
Whenever I am on the side of the Administration, I am surfeited with computer printouts that come within seconds to prove how right I am.
From Time Magazine Archive
I am sure it is surfeited with babies and is now coming after adults.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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
There is nothing so surfeiting as green turtle.
From Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet The Story of a King's Daughter by Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Williams) Champney
So Christ commands, Luke 21, 34: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt.
From The Augsburg Confession The confession of faith, which was submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V at the diet of Augsburg in the year 1530 by Philipp Melanchthon
No, my boys, depend upon it the real secret of enjoyment is to leave off when you have had enough; and nothing is more surfeiting, more cloying, than too much pleasure.
From Hollowdell Grange Holiday Hours in a Country Home by George Manville Fenn
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