superfluousadj.n.

?a1450 J. Arderne in 17th Internat. Congr. Med. (1914) xxiii. 125 Yt fylle so to hyme after that out of the yerd ranne moche superfluous blood often & wolde not lyghtly cese.

?1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton i. sig. cvi^v Thou oughtest not to stryue..wyth them that ben ful of superfluous wordes.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection ii. sig. Ovi^v We..shulde..dygge our vyne wele..and cutte awaye the superfluous braunches.

1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xxiii. f. 44 For as moch as I suppose, that ye cal them superfluouse humors, whiche ar more than conueniente to the naturall proportion and temperature of the body.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 160 I haue no superfluous leysure, my stay must be stolen out of other affaires.

1673 J. Milton Sonnets xviii, in Poems (new ed.) 61 Heav'n..disapproves that care,..That with superfluous burden loads the day.

1712 C. Johnson Wife's Relief ii. iv. 25 Tell me o' coming into your Room, I'll come again and again; you are a Supernumerary, or a Parenthesis, that is, you are a superfluous Person.

1764 Museum Rusticum IV. 22 To take off any superfluous or ill-placed shoots.

1772 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra II. lxviii. 317 I shall state..the several statutes..omitting superfluous words.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. iii. 28 Divesting myself of all superfluous clothes.

1880 S. Haughton Six Lect. Physical Geogr. v. 224 Lake Tanganika discharges its superfluous waters into the southern branch of the Congo.

1910 H. G. Wells Hist. Mr. Polly ix. 301 Drowning superfluous kittens.

1963 G. F. Simmons Introd. Topol. & Mod. Anal. ii. 50 It was hoped..that stripping away superfluous underbrush would give new emphasis to what really mattered from the point of view of the underlying theory.

2007 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 30 May 11 Psychologists have devised an assessment tool that shows how prone someone is to being diverted from their main task when presented with superfluous information.

1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. cccix. 728 Being often annointed or laide on, it taketh away superfluous haires.

1752 B. Thornton Have at You All 20 Feb. 130 I shall sell Mrs. Giles's fine compound (at a guinea an ounce) to take off all superfluous hair.

1764 S. Foote Patron i. 21 My coral for cutting of teeth, my potions, my lotions, my pregnancy-drops, with my paste for superfluous hairs?

1800 in C. W. Cunnington Feminine Attitudes (1935) ii. 44 I shall sell a compound to take off all superfluous hair.

1873 Young Englishwoman Aug. 414/1 Will you kindly tell us..whether you know of any depilatory that may be safely used for the removal of superfluous hair?

1898 J. F. Schamberg Compend Dis. Skin 198 The cases in which treatment is usually demanded are women with superfluous facial hair-growth.

1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise iv. 69 Do you suffer from superfluous hair?

1939 Life 11 Sept. 6/3 (advt.) Use phelactine depilatory. Removes superfluous facial hair quickly.

1959 Woman 5 Sept. 18/1 The only permanent way of getting rid of superfluous hair is by electrolysis.

2009 Daily Mail (London) (Nexis) 21 Sept. How clearly I remember the first time superfluous hair ruled, and ruined, my life.

1855 A. Jameson Sisters of Charity 56 Take of these 500,000 superfluous women only the one-hundredth part..to join the communion of labour.

1885 Phrenol. Jrnl. Mar. 184/1 If the equilibrium of the sexes could be restored, the excess of the female in the East would vanish, and the superfluous girl become the honored wife, and superfluous boy would then come to the surface quite able to take care of himself.

1886 L. M. Alcott Jo's Boys i. 22 There is a plenty for the ‘superfluous women’ to do... I..am very glad..that my profession will make me a useful..spinster.

1911 G. B. Shaw Getting Married Pref. in Doctor's Dilemma 140 In our population there are about a million monogamically superfluous women, yet it is quite impossible to say of any given unmarried woman that she is one of the superfluous.

1978 M. Cadogan & P. Craig Women & Children First vii. 133 The 1921 census showed a 1,700,000 surplus of women over men as a result of the slaughter of the war years..the so-called superfluous woman.

2007 L. Millward Women in Brit. Imperial Airspace, 1922–37 iii. 78 The modern superfluous girl had to make do without motherhood and intimacy.

c1450 tr. G. Boccaccio De Claris Mulieribus (1924) l. 207 (MED) Bochace thought it labour veyne Thies nobyll virgyns to put in his storye Amonge the Gentyls, for it were..But superfluous and no prayse worthy.

a1500 tr. Thomas à Kempis De Imitatione Christi (Trin. Dublin) (1893) 101 What art þou made wery wiþ superfluous cures?

a1535 T. More Treat. Passion in Wks. (1557) 1281/1 To long for y^e knowledge of lesse necessarye learning, or delite in debating of sundrye superfluous problemes.

1581 in D. Digges Compl. Ambassador (1655) 420 Your abode there is but superfluous, and more chargeable..then serviceable.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke Annot. sig. (∴)2 Seeing therfore further discourse wil be superfluous, I wil heere make an ende.

1639 J. Saltmarsh Pract. Policie 96 If you have beene neglected by any, and thought superfluous.

1684 Bp. Wilkins's Discov. New World (ed. 4) ii. 152 We allow every Watch-maker so much wisdom, as not to put any Motion in his Instrument, which is superfluous.

1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. ii. i. 142 To say, Revelation is a thing superfluous,..is, I think, to talk quite wildly.

1775 S. Johnson Let. 13 July (1992) II. 245 Your anxiety about your other Babies is, I hope, superfluous.

1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller I. i. vi. 80 The forms and ceremonies of marriage began to be considered superfluous bonds.

1855 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Philip II I. ii. xiv. 299 After the oath of allegiance he had once taken a new one seemed superfluous.

1919 Green Bk. Mag. Jan. 176 The author..revels in the showy but superfluous role of a bibulous journalist.

1970 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 15 103 Once we express a grammar in terms of a relational network, intermediate symbols become completely superfluous.

2008 New Yorker 31 Mar. 62/3 The trucks had nondescript markings—a superfluous precaution, probably, since robbing one would be a chore.

1513 King Henry VIII in J. O. Halliwell Lett. Kings Eng. (1846) I. 216 After rehearsal..of many..injuries, griefs, and damages..the specialities whereof were superfluous to rehearse.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 27 I thinke it but superfluous to kepe suche ordre in all other consonantes.

1559 in J. Strype Ann. Reformation (1709) I. App. x. 439 It is a superfluous thinge..to call into judgment againe matters which have ben tried.

1604 T. Wright Passions of Minde (new ed.) v. §2. 166 In some musick there is to be noted a manifest loose effeminatenesse: and the experience is so sensible, that it were superfluous to proceed any farther in proofe.

1656 A. Cowley Misc. Pref., in Poems Some of them made when I was very young, which it is perhaps superfluous to tell the Reader.

1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous i. 37 It is therefore superfluous to inquire particularly concerning each of them.

1793 in G. Lamoine Charges to Grand Jury (1992) 514 It would be superfluous to point out to you, the certain and most pernicious effects of such exhibitions.

1833 C. Lamb Ellistoniana in Last Ess. Elia 35 To descant upon his merits as a Comedian would be superfluous.

1873 P. G. Hamerton Intellect. Life x. vii. 370 It is superfluous to recommend idleness to the unintellectual, but the intellectual too often undervalue it.

1919 G. Saintsbury Hist. French Novel II. (Addenda to Vol. 1.) p. xvi I think it sufficient, and not superfluous, to add this brief sketch here.

1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 268/1 A polity can be adequately described as aristocratic or nobiliary; it seems superfluous to call it feudal too.

2001 Statesman (India) (Nexis) 11 Aug. It would be superfluous to suggest that India's one-day cricket team lacks consistency.

a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. R.iv Damsels..thinketh all their tyme lost, and superfluous vnto the day of theyr mariage.

1594 W. Jones tr. J. Lipsius Sixe Bks. Politickes iv. vi. 72 Whilst many haue persuaded themselues to be of as great power as they were made beleeue, they haue drawne vpon them superfluous warres, to the danger of their estate.

1610 Bible (Douay) II. Wisd. xi. 16 Some erring did worshippe dumme serpents, and superfluous beastes.

1654 J. Bramhall Just Vindic. Church of Eng. viii. 241 This challenge of infallibility diminisheth their authority, discrediteth their definitions, and maketh them to be superfluous things.

1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. ii. 11 I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demaunde the time of the day. View more context for this quotation

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 832 If ye know, Why ask ye, and superfluous begin Your message, like to end as much in vain? View more context for this quotation

1826 W. Scott Woodstock I. xvii I humbly ask pardon—I would not willingly be superfluous.

1880 Daily News 3 Jan. 2/2 We will not be so superfluous as to criticise this amusing drawing.

1910 V. Bell Sel. Lett. (1993) 88 When I think how everybody refrained from giving us advice before we set out for the East because they thought somebody else would do so, I make bold to be superfluous and officious.

a1972 J. Berryman Berryman's Shakespeare (1999) 148 I am not going to be so superfluous as to praise The Tempest.

c1475 Mankind (1969) l. 239 Be ware of excesse; Þe superfluouse gyse I wyll þat ȝe refuse.

1533 J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen Richt Vay 95 Al inordinat and superfluis desiris in meittis and drinkkis and slepinge.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 36 His stalke or bodie..is somewhat grosse or superfluous.

1575 in A. Macdonald & J. Dennistoun Misc. Maitland Club (1833) I. 114 The pompious convoy and supperflouis banketting to Margerat Denelstoun the day of hir mariage.

1611 Bible (King James) Lev. xxi. 18 A blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous . View more context for this quotation

1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII i. i. 99 A proper Title of a Peace, and purchas'd At a superfluous rate. View more context for this quotation

1692 T. Tryon Good House-wife (ed. 2) xvii. 143 To raise great Estates, and to live a rich easie superfluous Life, and not for any private or publick good.

1714 J. G. Hansel Medicina Brevis i. 42 Inordinate or Superfluous Eating and Drinking.

1757 C. Lennox tr. L. A. de La Beaumelle Mem. for Hist. Madame Maintenon III. ix. iii. 79 Madame Maintenon..traced the plan of an easy but not a superfluous life.

1815 S. Gray Happiness of States vi. vii. 474 The increase of luxury or superfluous eating and drinking.

1664 J. Birchensha tr. J. H. Alsted Templum Musicum iv. 18 The seventeenth, are Intervalls not just, which are either deficient or redundant, chiefly by the lesser Semitone, or Comma, or both together: as the Semioctave deficient and abounding Fifth: the minute and superfluous fourth [L. quarta diminuta & superflua] which is named a Tritone, and such like.

1740 J. Grassineau tr. S. De Brossard Musical Dict. 102 The discords are, the second, Tritone, or superfluous fourth [etc.].

1790 Monthly Rev. Mar. 273 His intemperate use of apoggiaturas, and of the infernal discord (we can give it no other name) of the superfluous fifth.

1864 C. Engel Music Most Anc. Nations 361 A superfluous second may, in sound at least, be taken as identical with a minor third.

1885 C. Bell & J. S. Fuller-Maitland tr. P. Spitta J. S. Bach III. vi. iv. 122 In five-part writing he forbids the reduplication of the superfluous second, the fourth, the diminished fifth, the superfluous sixth, the seventh, and the ninth.

1965 Jrnl. Music Theory 9 280 An octave (1200 cents) minus a diesis (128:125, 42 cents) minus a comma (81:60, 22 cents) equals 1134 cents; 1134 divided by 2 equals 567 cents, or one cent less than the 568 of the 25:18 ‘superfluous fourth’.