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
“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
Any study of wars, poverty and other manmade crises shows us that humanity still suffers from a lack of empathy, not a surfeit.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2025
The Victorians worried about a “world denuded of larger significance,” but we suffer from both material surfeit and spiritual abundance, and are captive to a surplus of competing and increasingly angry gods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
From someone who had no place in the world, she had suddenly become someone with a surfeit of places.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
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
Regina, will you touch the bell for Hattie, that she may come and carry away all this breakfast, which I have not touched, and the bare sight of which surfeits me?
From Infelice by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans
Instances of violent surfeits often occur from eating pickled salmon, soused mackarel, and other rich preserves, not from their being in a state of decay, but from the unwholesomeness of their preparation.
From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families by Mary Eaton
More fevers and surfeits are got by people's drinking when they are hot, than by any one thing I know.
From The Young Mother Management of Children in Regard to Health by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott
I see that plenty surfeits oft, And hasty climbers soonest fall; I see that such as are aloft, Mishap doth threaten most of all.
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen
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
Meanwhile, the U.S., surfeited with food, has put 22.5 million acres of once productive land into its soil bank.
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
Tom’s plan about holding the temptation before a burro instead of surfeiting him with goodies, was evidently beginning to work.
From Polly's Business Venture by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
The cod increases its species most prodigiously, surfeiting itself upon hake, until the world is again menaced.
From Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) A Novel by Charlotte Brewster Jordan
In the third place, I would have you know that surfeiting will invariably produce heavy, burning hands.
From The Ladies' Vase Polite Manual for Young Ladies by An American Lady
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.
