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  1. surfeit love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To feed or supply to excess, satiety, or disgust.
  2. v. Archaic To overindulge.
  3. n. Overindulgence in food or drink.
  4. n. The result of such overindulgence; satiety or disgust.
  5. n. An excessive amount.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Excess; specifically (and now usually), excess in eating and drinking; a gluttonous meal by which the stomach is overloaded and the digestion deranged.
  2. n. Fullness and oppression of the system, occasioned by excessive eating and drinking.
  3. n. Disgust caused by excess; satiety; nausea.
  4. n. Synonyms Repletion, plethora. See the verb.
  5. To feed so as to oppress the stomach and derange the digestive functions; overfeed so as to produce sickness or uneasiness; overload the stomach of.
  6. To fill to satiety and disgust; cloy; nauseate: as, to surfeit one with eulogies.
  7. Synonyms Satiate, etc. (see satisfy); glut, gorge.
  8. To be fed till the system is oppressed, and sickness or uneasiness ensues.

Wiktionary

  1. n. countable An excessive amount of something.
  2. n. uncountable Overindulgence in either food or drink; overeating.
  3. n. countable A sickness or condition caused by overindulgence.
  4. v. transitive To fill to excess.
  5. v. transitive To feed someone to excess.
  6. v. intransitive, reflexive To overeat or feed to excess.
  7. v. intransitive, reflexive To sicken from overindulgence.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Excess in eating and drinking.
  2. n. Fullness and oppression of the system, occasioned often by excessive eating and drinking.
  3. n. Disgust caused by excess; satiety.
  4. v. To load the stomach with food, so that sickness or uneasiness ensues; to eat to excess.
  5. v. To indulge to satiety in any gratification.
  6. v. To feed so as to oppress the stomach and derange the function of the system; to overfeed, and produce satiety, sickness, or uneasiness; -- often reflexive.
  7. v. To fill to satiety and disgust; to cloy.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the state of being more than full
  2. n. the quality of being so overabundant that prices fall
  3. n. eating until excessively full
  4. v. indulge (one's appetite) to satiety
  5. v. supply or feed to surfeit

Etymologies

  1. From Old French surfaire ("to augment, exaggerate, exceed"), from sur- + faire ("to do"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English surfeten, from surfait, excess, from Old French, from past participle of surfaire, to overdo : sur-, sur- + faire, to do (from Latin facere; see dhē- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Apres Chremslech I trust you are not suffering from 'Pharoah's Revenge' otherwise known as a surfeit of Matzot.”

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...

  • “For Augustine says (Confess. ii, 6) that "lust affects to be called surfeit and abundance.”

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province

  • “The Monastic Impulse is based on world-weariness, with disappointed love, or sex surfeit, which is a phase of the same thing, as a basis.”

    Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 10 Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers

  • “A peculiar eruption, termed surfeit, which resembles mange, is sometimes the consequence of exposure to cold after a hot sultry day.”

    The Dog

  • “This disease is perhaps generally left after a slight inflammation of the stomach, called a surfeit, occasioned by drinking cold liquors, or eating cold vegetables, when heated with exercise.”

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life

  • “But the surfeit is a far cry from earlier in 2010, when the network scrambled to fill five hours of primetime programming after canceling Leno's primetime show.”

    Variety.com

  • “Tough call, but I probably like his "Many Moons" even a little better, both because it includes the word "surfeit" (the Princess falls ill from a surfeit of blueberry tarts) and because it covers astrophysics (all the King's royal advisers tell him it's impossible to have the moon on a chain because it's way too big, but the Jester figures out a way).”

    Here Be Post-Modern Muppets

  • “They were explained in two ways: at the time of a fresh injection, the toxin was added to the amount already absorbed by the body, and thus had a heightened effect (Koch, Richet); or else certain subjects were occasionally and paradoxically hypersensitive, and this, as it were, by a kind of surfeit caused by repeated doses of the toxin (Behring).”

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1913 - Presentation Speech

  • “To relieve this surfeit, which is the worst of monotonies, eagerly would the prince have joined the revolting troops, detachments of which he could perceive from the walls of the Kutub hastening along the sun-scorched highway to Delhi.”

    The Flaw in the Sapphire

  • “surfeit", and this point was settled by seeing the water poured in at its nostrils running out at its mouth.”

    The Boy Slaves

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synonyms (28)

Words with the same meaning

  1. satiety
  2. cloy
  3. feed
  4. overfeed
  5. sate
  1. satiate
  2. stuff
  3. cramp
  4. overcram
  5. overcloy
  1. gorge
  2. engorge
  3. overgorge
  4. glut
  5. englut
  1. crapulate
  2. overeat
  3. superfluity
  4. excess
  5. overabundance
  1. surplus
  2. gluttony
  3. overeating
  4. overindulgence
  5. fill
  1. indulge
  2. revel
  3. sicken

antonyms (2)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. hunger
  1. thirst

hypernyms (13)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. fullness
  2. overmuch
  1. overabundance
  2. superabundance
  1. overmuchness
  2. feeding
  1. eating
  2. indulge
  1. luxuriate
  2. furnish
  1. provide
  2. supply
  1. render

same context (2)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. repletion
  1. superabundance

reverse dictionary (37)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. surfit
  2. surfait
  3. surfet
  4. surfeit
  5. jaded
  6. disgusted
  7. crapulence
  1. UG
  2. overeat
  3. repletion
  4. sate
  5. surfeiting
  6. surfeit-swelled
  7. cloyment
  1. cropsick
  2. satiety
  3. cloy
  4. acrasy
  5. tired of
  6. worldly
  7. sick of
  1. bloat
  2. drench
  3. smother
  4. fed up
  5. pall
  6. sick
  7. blasé
  1. overfeed
  2. overfullness
  3. satiate
  4. sickening
  5. surcloy
  6. drug
  7. dull
  1. fulsome
  2. staw

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. animals
  1. excess
  1. collective nouns

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Comments

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  • skipvia Never took any pictures, jenn. This was way long ago. I wish I had, though.

    When the skunks were mature, he took them to a remote location and let them go. That's the last I heard of them. Nov 16, 2007

  • jennarenn Did we nominate pronk for woty07?

    edit: Glad to see that somebody was already on it. :) Nov 16, 2007

  • chained_bear Skunk has to be one of the best words ever. Like pronk. Nov 16, 2007

  • reesetee Yes, I've heard they're pretty good pets. Nov 16, 2007

  • jennarenn Awwww. Do you have pictures that you could post? What happened to them once they grew up? Nov 16, 2007

  • skipvia Well, more than one skunk would certainly be enough.

    Actually, a friend of mine in North Carolina once rescued several skunk kits when their mother became roadkill near his house. They were absolutely charming. They followed him around the house and the yard, they loved to play, they'd sit in your lap, and they never acted aggressively toward visitors.

    And no, they were never de-skunked. Nov 16, 2007

  • jennarenn Hahahahahahah!!! Is this one for real? Nov 16, 2007

  • skipvia A group of skunks Nov 15, 2007

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‘surfeit’ has been looked up 5319 times, loved by 17 people, added to 143 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.