surfeit
1 of 2noun
surfeit
2 of 2verb
transitive verb
intransitive verb
Did you know?
There is an abundance—you could almost say a surfeit—of English words that derive from the Latin facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as sacrifice, benefaction, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of Latin stupefacere) and hacienda (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere factor is not so apparent. As for surfeit, the "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.
Synonyms
Noun
- bellyful
- excess
- fat
- overabundance
- overage
- overflow
- overkill
- overmuch
- overplus
- oversupply
- plethora
- plus
- redundancy
- superabundance
- superfluity
- surplus
- surplusage
Verb
- cram
- glut
- gorge
- sate
- stuff
Example Sentences
Matt Day, Fortune, 2 Sep. 2022 In fact, a surfeit of low gears can even act to undermine your morale. Eben Weiss, Outside Online, 21 July 2022 Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy, who succeeded founder Jeff Bezos in the role last year, is trying to unwind a pandemic-era expansion that saddled Amazon with a surfeit of warehouse space and too many employees. Spencer Soper, Fortune, 28 July 2022 Yet the surfeit of material makes the task, if anything, harder. Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 9 May 2022 Decades later, the resulting surfeit of pine has pushed log prices to their lowest levels in decades even as the resurgent housing market has lifted prices for lumber and other wood products to records. Ryan Dezember, WSJ, 21 June 2021 The photograph’s edges — the only sharp, straight lines anywhere to be seen — slice off a view that is otherwise a surfeit of graceful curves. Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2022 These shows join a surfeit of existing Star Wars TV. Grace Segers, The New Republic, 14 June 2022 Despite this surfeit of imagination, there are no three-legged animals alive today, and nor have any such fossils ever been unearthed. Grrlscientist, Forbes, 18 May 2022 See More Word History
Noun
Middle English surfet, from Anglo-French, from surfaire to overdo, from sur- + faire to do, from Latin facere — more at do
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
surfeit 1 of 2
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- surplus
- excess
- overabundance
- abundance
- overflow
- sufficiency
- oversupply
- superabundance
- plethora
- overmuch
- surplusage
- superfluity
- plus
- bellyful
- plenty
- overkill
- overage
- fat
- overplus
- profusion
- bounty
- redundancy
- overproduction
- plentitude
- overstock
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- deficiency
- deficit
- insufficiency
- lack
- scarcity
- dearth
- undersupply
- want
surfeit
2 of 2verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- glut
- gorge
- stuff
- sate
- fill
- feast
- cram
- gobble
- pig out
- regale
- cloy
- banquet
- gulp
- gormandize
- guzzle
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- diet
- fast
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of surfeit are cloy, glut, gorge, pall, sate, and satiate. While all these words mean "to fill to repletion," surfeit implies a nauseating repletion.
While in some cases nearly identical to surfeit, cloy stresses the disgust or boredom resulting from such surfeiting.
While the synonyms glut and surfeit are close in meaning, glut implies excess in feeding or supplying.
Although the words gorge and surfeit have much in common, gorge suggests glutting to the point of bursting or choking.
The synonyms pall and surfeit are sometimes interchangeable, but pall emphasizes the loss of ability to stimulate interest or appetite.
Both satiate and sate may sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire.