Basic Guidelines For English Spellings
READ THESE ARTICLESnoun
usually in singular1An excessive amount of something.
‘a surfeit of food and drink’- ‘As someone with a surfeit of embarrassing '80s hairstyle photo evidence I am all in favour of today's youth facing similar consequences.’
- ‘That's no mean boast, since there's a surfeit of super-featherweight talent around.’
- ‘There is nothing in the income tax legislation that precludes people from paying extra taxes as they want to, voluntarily, and I am sure Treasury would not be embarrassed by a surfeit of cheques.’
- ‘The failure to laugh signifies in the peasant or the Frenchman a politeness that exceeds his intelligence, in the landowner or the Englishman an excessive rigidity, and in the policeman or the German a surfeit of power.’
- ‘Riders who live here, meanwhile, will enjoy a surfeit of buses, in an effort by the transit system to let municipalities and developers know that compliance with regional growth strategy will be rewarded.’
- ‘Line-ups, unpredictable travel paths, and a surfeit of available activities add up to an unplannable day, an unkeepable schedule, and an unsatisfying level of achievement by the end of the day.’
- ‘While Christmas on my own has been immensely relaxing, you may be able to ascertain that I'm getting to the stage where a surfeit of my own company means that as soon as I sit down at a keyboard and start to type, a sudden verbal splurge results.’
- ‘As the production gags on a surfeit of imagination, you find yourself filling in an imaginary multiple-choice list, ticking off the useful and crossing out the padding.’
- ‘Of course, Washington's profligate political class eagerly engaged in deficit spending to provide a surfeit of public-sector debt to close this circle.’
- ‘It is a moot point whether corporations and companies that sink so much into supporting televised sport in the form of commercials are really benefiting in this age of a surfeit of everything, from goods to sport.’
- ‘Even with such a surfeit of channels, democratic choices will be, to a large extent, restricted to those privileged citizens who can buy access to more than just the free-to-air channels.’
- ‘The newly promoted person may also attempt to minimize the status difference through self-deprecation and a surfeit of leniency toward the new supervisees.’
- ‘Despite a deficit of information and a surfeit of speculation about this tragic incident, the mainstream media did not hesitate to jump to all the familiar, poisonous conclusions.’
- ‘Shakespeare has him poisoned by a monk, though in reality he died, like so many medieval kings, from eating too much, stuffing his face with ‘a surfeit of peaches and new cider’.’
- ‘There is a surfeit of news these days - a string of dramatic, violent, terrible events being played out almost simultaneously in different parts of the world.’
- ‘Viewers have a surfeit of choice these days when it comes to watching TV - why should we all be commanded to pay a chunk to the BBC, given changes in media consumption trends?’
- ‘The United States seemed to be suffering from a surfeit of power, which made it difficult for elites to formulate any coherent principles for its use.’
- ‘The silence was not due to moral paucity, but to a surfeit of principle - one must never, under any circumstances, compromise one's political neutrality.’
- ‘If all else fails, you can always just eat the table decorations, since it seems that every festive table these days plays host to a generous bowl of fruit and nuts and a surfeit of chocolates.’
- ‘There is a surfeit of civic pride - not to mention the odd attack of the giggles - when the new Mayor of Blackrod and his Mayoress are invited to attend local events.’
excess, surplus, abundance, oversupply, superabundance, superfluity, overdose, glut, avalanche, delugeView synonyms- 1.1archaic An illness caused or regarded as being caused by excessive eating or drinking.‘he died of a surfeit’
- ‘In the current affluent West, where surfeit is a far more common phenomenon than famine, excess flesh and lack of bodily ‘fitness’ is interpreted as a sign of laxity, overindulgence and weak will.’
verbsurfeits, surfeiting, surfeited
[with object]usually be surfeited with1Cause (someone) to desire no more of something as a result of having consumed or done it to excess.
‘I am surfeited with shopping’- ‘There was a time when the Cardinals were so successful that the fans, like Atlanta's today, became surfeited with victory.’
satiate, gorge, overfeed, overfill, glut, cram, stuff, overindulge, fillView synonyms- 1.1archaic no object Consume too much of something.‘he never surfeited on rich wine’
Origin
Middle English from Old French, based on Latin super- ‘above, in excess’ + facere ‘do’.
Pronunciation
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