surfeit
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɜː.fɪt/
ipa: /ˈsɝː.fɪt/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)fɪt
Forms: form: surfeits
form: surfeiting
form: surfeited
form: surfeited
Etymology: From Middle English surfeite, surfet, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman surfet, surfeit and Old French sorfet, sorfait, past participle of surfaire (“to augment, exaggerate, exceed”), from sur- (“over”) + faire (“to do”). The adjective is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in’t,—the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you;
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: If this surfeited sponge of speculation, this crammed commercial cormorant, wanted more than that for his daughter, why could he not say so without asking disgusting questions such as these […]?
ref: 1875, Anthony Trollope, chapter 23, in The Way We Live Now, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:
synonyms: stuff
glosses: To fill (something) to excess.
examples: text: She surfeited her children on sweets.
text: […] ev’n the wholsomest Meats may be surfeited on, and there is nothing more unhealthy, than to feed very well, and do but very little Exercise.
ref: 1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, London: Henry Herringman, Reflection 10, page 186:
text: To the door of this, the twelfth house whose bell he had rung, came a housekeeper who made him think of an unwholesome, surfeited worm that had eaten its nut to a hollow shell and now sought to fill the vacancy with edible lodgers.
ref: 1906, O. Henry, “The Furnished Room”, in The Four Million, New York: A.L. Burt, page 240:
text: If he said of a dish, in the local tongue: “I could do a bit of that!” or if he simply smacked his lips over it, she would surfeit him with that dish.
ref: 1909, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 8, section 1, p. 318:
synonyms: glut
overfeed
stuff
glosses: To feed (someone) to excess (on, upon or with something).
examples: text: […] that proportion of meat surfetteth, and surchargeth the stomacks of some, which is not enough to satisfie the hunger of others,
ref: 1640, Thomas Fuller, Joseph’s Partie-Colored Coat, London: John Williams:
text: […] I imagine him poisoned by his wines, or surfeited by a favourite dish;
ref: 1755 January 2, George Colman, The Connoisseur, volume 1, number 49, London: R. Baldwin, page 299:
glosses: To make (someone) sick as a result of overconsumption.
examples: text: 1697, Aphra Behn, “On an ungrateful and undeserving Mistress, whom he cou’d not help Loving” in Poems upon Several Occasions, London: Francis Saunders, p. 50,
While some glad Rival in her Arms did lye,
Glutted with Love and surfeited with Joy.
text: […] he shan’t shut me up in this dismal castle, and nauseate me with his surfeiting fondness:
ref: 1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 4, Book 10, Chapter 3, p. 18:
text: […] I suppose his majesty thought we had enough of it on the field, and did not wish to surfeit us with glory.
ref: 1844 Jun, Charles Lever, chapter 53, in Tom Burke of “Ours”, volume 2, Dublin: William Curry, page 31:
text: After supper, surfeited with the subject, she yawned.
ref: 1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 2, page 210:
text: The image-surfeited are likely to find sunsets corny; they now look, alas, too much like photographs.
ref: 1977, Susan Sontag, “The Heroism of Vision”, in On Photography, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 77:
synonyms: cloy
glut
glosses: To supply (someone) with something to excess; to disgust (someone) through overabundance.
examples: text: […] his appetite for vulgar praise had not yet been surfeited;
ref: 1796, Maria Edgeworth, “The Mimic”, in The Parent’s Assistant; or, Stories for Children, volume 2, London: J. Johnson, page 98:
text: Every one has had the experience of being served with more food than can be eaten with relish and without waste. The effect is to surfeit the appetite and to limit the variety which a patron may have,
ref: 1922, Lenore Richards, Nola Treat, chapter 2, in Quantity Cookery,, Boston: Little, Brown, page 8:
synonyms: glut
glosses: To satisfy (someone's appetite) to excess (both literally and figuratively).
examples: text: And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 21:34:
text: Millions of people were starving, while the oligarchs and their supporters were surfeiting on the surplus.
ref: 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 17, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 251:
text: Those who do not surfeit themselves do not weary quickly of any particular article of diet.
ref: 1917, R. L. Alsaker, chapter 16, in Maintaining Health, New York: Frank E. Morrison, page 174:
synonyms: glut
indulge
overfeed
overindulge
glosses: To overeat or feed to excess (on or upon something).
examples: text: After surfeiting itself with the Feast here provided for it, the Eye, by using a little Exercise in travelling about the Country, grows hungry again, and returns to the Entertainment with fresh Appetite.
ref: 1748, William Gilpin, A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honourable Viscount Cobham, at Stow in Buckinghamshire, London: B. Seeley, page 54:
text: […] a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 16:
text: […] the intemperate zeal with which middle-aged men are apt to surfeit themselves upon a seductive folly which they have tasted for the first time.
ref: 1869, Mark Twain, chapter 47, in The Innocents Abroad, Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, page 496:
glosses: To indulge (in something) to excess.
examples: text: […] they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: I must confesse at my first reading of them [the miracles of Hildegard of Bingen], my belief digested some, but surfeted on the rest:
ref: 1642, Thomas Fuller, chapter 13, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book I, page 43:
text: He that ſerves many Miſtreſſes, ſurfeits on his diet, and grovvs dead to the vvhole ſex: 'tis the folly in the vvorld next long ears and braying.
ref: 1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC, Act II, page 17:
text: But are children to be allowed to surfeit themselves? Shall they be suffered to take their fill of dainties and make themselves ill, as they certainly will do?
ref: 1861, Herbert Spencer, chapter 4, in Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical,, London: Williams and Norgate, page 149:
glosses: To become sick from overindulgence (both literally and figuratively).
Derived terms: surfeiter
Related terms: surfeiting
surfeitly
surfeitness
surfeitous