单词 | superfluous |
释义 | superfluousadj.n. A. adj. 1. a. That is present in a greater quantity than is desired, permitted, or required for the purpose; abundant or numerous to the point of excess; more than sufficient. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [adjective] > excessive or superfluous superfluent?1440 superfluous?a1450 superstitiousc1450 superfluec1475 redundant?1577 pleonastical1653 exuberant1667 pleonasmical1693 enormous1704 pluperfect1802 pleonastic1835 ?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. cviv Thou oughtest not to stryue..wyth them that ben ful of superfluous wordes. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection ii. sig. Oviv 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. b. Designating hair growing on the face or body, usually of a woman, which is considered excessive and unattractive, and is often removed on this account. Chiefly in superfluous hair. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > hair > [noun] > superfluous superfluous hair1597 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. c. Designating a person, usually a woman, unlikely to marry because of a surplus of one gender over the other in the population. Chiefly in superfluous girl, superfluous woman.Now often with reference to the period after the end of the First World War (1914–18). ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > unmarried person(s) > unmarried woman > [noun] > one unlikely to marry superfluous woman1855 superfluous girl1885 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. 2. a. That is not needed or required; unnecessary, redundant; uncalled for; (sometimes) spec. not essential, trivial. ΘΚΠ the mind > will > necessity > condition of being necessary > [adjective] > unnecessary needlessc1300 unneedful1387 superfluea1425 superfluousc1450 unnecessary1528 unnecessar1590 irrequisite1599 unnecessaire1611 non-necessary1621 unneeded1704 forbearable1803 uncalled1817 the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [adjective] > excessive or superfluous > superfluous or unnecessary wastec1380 voidc1440 superfluousc1450 supererogative1538 supererogatory1549 supervacaneala1575 supervacaneousa1575 supervacuous1577 supernumerary1617 excrescent1633 expletive1656 expletory1679 supererogant1737 ripieno1781 excrescentitious1833 excrescential1849 fifth-wheel1874 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 ye 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. b. Of an action expressed by an infinitive. Chiefly with anticipatory it as subject. ΚΠ 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. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > uselessness, vanity, or futility > [adjective] idlec825 unnuteOE bricklec1225 tooma1250 unnaita1250 vaina1300 waste1303 overvoida1382 voida1382 superfluec1384 daylessa1387 unbehovely1390 unprofitablea1398 unbehoveful1429 wastefulc1450 idleful1483 fruster1488 vainful1509 frustrate?a1513 superfluousa1533 addle1534 lost1535 fittle1552 futilea1575 nugatory1605 futilous1607 shiftless1613 tympanous1625 emptya1628 frustraneousa1643 pointless1673 futilitous1765 otiose1795 stultificatory1931 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. d. Of a person: doing more than is necessary or desirable, esp. speaking needlessly or out of turn. Frequently with infinitive expressing the action. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > acting in another's business or intervention > [adjective] > officious busy1340 pragmatical1593 officious1596 polypragmatical1597 superfluous1598 pragmaticc1612 superserviceablea1616 polypragmatic1616 stickling1642 over-officious1647 polypragmonetic1693 managinga1715 busybodied1798 busybodyish1851 pantopragmatic1860 polypragmonic1866 polypragmosynic1886 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. 3. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [adjective] > excessive or too great in amount or degree overmeteeOE unmeeteOE unimeteOE unmethelyOE over-mickleOE hoflesc1175 overmucha1300 unskilwisea1340 unskilfulc1370 luxuriousc1374 overseemingc1384 superfluec1384 unreasonablea1387 outrageousc1390 over-greatc1390 overlargec1390 overgrowna1398 unmeasurablea1398 unmoderatea1398 unordinatea1398 immoderate1398 rankc1400 overabundantc1410 excessivea1420 superabundant?a1425 unmeasureda1425 superfluousc1475 nimious?c1500 surfeitc1500 overliberala1535 torc1540 exceeding1548 distemperate1557 over-ranka1568 overswelling1582 accessive1583 overaboundinga1600 overteeming1603 excessful1633 overproportionated1647 superproportioned1652 over-proportioned1662 overproportionate1672 unduea1684 unequal1704 unmerciful1707 hypermetric1854 hypertrophied1879 over the top1980 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. b. Music. = augmented adj. 2d. Now historical and rare. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > pitch > interval > [adjective] > imperfect false1597 imperfect1609 semi-perfect1623 superfluous1664 diminished1728 augmented1821 pluperfect1876 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’. ΘΚΠ the mind > possession > relinquishing > squandering or prodigality > [adjective] largea1225 fool-largec1325 costlewa1387 outragea1400 riotousc1405 sumptuousa1425 superfluea1425 prodigatec1429 profuse?a1475 lavishc1475 prodigalc1485 prodiga1492 prodigaleousa1500 superfluous1531 wasteful1538 costly?1555 prodigal1570 overlavish1573 squandering1589 lavishing1598 spenseful1600 expenseful1605 spendthrift1607 spendful1611 dingthrifty1615 impendious1623 expensive1628 unthriftya1631 spendthrifty1642 flush1703 extravagant1711 profligate1718 dispendious1727 wastry1791 wasterful1821 wastrife1822 prodigalish1857 high-rolling1890 wastrel1896 the mind > possession > supply > [adjective] > provided or supplied with something > oversupplied with something superfluous1531 superabundanta1602 the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [adjective] > provided with an excess of something superfluous1531 overburdened1581 surcharged1615 overloaded1671 overladen1866 stinking1940 stinko1960 the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [adjective] > excessively profuse overlavish1573 overbarish1579 superfluous1667 1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour iii. xxv. sig. hviiiv He is superfluous in wordes; or els to scarse. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Isa. v. B Wo be vnto them that ryse vp early to vse them selues in dronkynnes, and yet at night are more superfluous with wyne. 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie iii. xi. 90 b The dressing of their meat..differeth from ours, being so superfluous, curious, and delicate,..whereas..theirs is scant, bare, and grosse. 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 424 Our basest beggers, Are in the poorest thing superfluous . View more context for this quotation 1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 27 Reasoning I oft admire, How Nature wise and frugal could commit Such disproportions, with superfluous hand So many nobler Bodies to create, Greater so manifold to this one use. View more context for this quotation 1711 J. Greenwood Ess. Pract. Eng. Gram. 233 Our Alphabet is deficient in some respects, and superfluous in others. 1789 C. James Poems II. 122 In vain mad fortune, with superfluous hand, Scatters the labour'd riches of a Land. B. n. With the. That which is superfluous or unnecessary; (in early use) spec. the excess. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [noun] > excess, redundancy, or superfluity un-i-fohOE surfeita1393 superfluitya1398 over-micklea1400 overmucha1400 nimiety1542 superfluous1552 redundance1572 overflowing1574 overflush1581 overflow1589 overmeasure1591 redundancy1601 a too-much1604 pleonasm1616 overfloat1619 overmuchnessa1637 supernumerariness1652 plusa1721 supervacaneousness1730 supersaturate1860 too-muchness1875 the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > excessive amount or degree > [noun] > excess, redundancy, or superfluity > a surplus or excess surplusc1374 overplusa1387 surplusagec1407 superplusage1436 superplusa1450 surcroitre1496 superfluous1552 excess1557 over-increase1579 over-sum1587 overflow1589 surcrease1600 surcroist1601 over-crease1625 exceeding1719 excedent1811 surcruec1825 overage1886 overspill1892 1552 King Edward VI Chron. & Polit. Papers (1966) (modernized text) 114 Other[s] should oversee my revenues and the order of them; and also the superfluous, and the payments heretofore made. 1612 C. Courtney Life & Exec. 2 My griefe is the spring, which my sorrow lets out, and Iustice is the pipe, which doth take, and can stoppe, whilst the world, as a spunge that suckes vp the superfluous, is of power to be squeezd forth. 1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus i. vii. 18/1 A State of Nature, affecting by its singularity, and Old-Roman contempt of the superfluous. 1876 R. Browning Pacchiarotto & Other Poems 23 If wealth would become but interfluous, Fill voids up with just the superfluous. 1918 M. V. O' Shea et al. World Bk. IV. 2555/1 The simplifying spirit of the English tongue has constantly been discarding the superfluous. 2004 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 Sept. 65/1 Stendhal supposedly said that literature is the art of selection, since it's charged with laisser de côté, sifting out the superfluous. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < |
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