Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The quality or condition of being superfluous.
- n. Something superfluous: could do without such superfluities as a second car.
- n. Overabundance; excess.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The quality or state of being superfluous; in excess or overabundance.
- n. Something superfluous, as a luxury.
- n. Collective noun for a group of nuns.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A greater quantity than is wanted; superabundance
- n. The state or quality of being superfluous; excess.
- n. Something beyond what is needed; something which serves for show or luxury.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A quantity that is superfluous or in excess; a greater quantity than is wanted; superabundance; redundancy.
- n. That which is in excess of what is wanted; especially, something used for show or luxury rather than for comfort or from necessity; something that could easily be dispensed with.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. extreme excess
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Examples
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And so-called superfluity is agreeable and usefully disposed of.
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_Mercury_ is found in one, the _Sulphur_ in another, and the _Salt_ in a third; yet I tell you, this is only to be understood of their superfluity, which is found to abound most in each, and may be used and prepared divers ways particularly with profit, both for Physick and transmutation of Metals; but the Universal, which is the supreamest
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When to that is added the mistake that my superfluity is the cause of your deficiency, it becomes intelligible why you and those who sympathise with you in your sufferings should call for division of property -- absolutely equal division.
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It is worthy of remark that salt diminishes, in a very striking degree, the pungency of the aji; and it is still more remarkable that the use of the latter, which in a manner may be called a superfluity, has no injurious effect on the digestive organs.
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And when the intestinal absorbents act too violently, as when too great quantities of fluid have been drank, the urinary absorbents invert their motions to carry off the superfluity, which is a new circumstance of association, and a temporary diabetes supervenes.
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'insistency,' and which many would call superfluity, and which _is_ superfluous in a sense -- _you_ can pardon, because you understand.
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846
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Besides, as the body gets warm with exercise in walking, this air, by sucking out the humours from the frame, diminishes their superabundance, and disperses and thus reduces that superfluity which is more than the body can bear.
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It would be a work of social regeneration to convince the public of the economy they might effect by such practises, to show them that elegance and propriety in themselves cost nothing -- nay, more, that they demand simplicity and moderation, and therefore exclude all that superfluity which is so expensive.
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Thus there was a "superfluity" of about ten days in every lunar year, or about one lunation in every third year; not to mention that a "mansion" was about a day longer than a lunation, and that therefore the husbandman was liable to be thrown out of his reckoning.
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Sheep have in their fleeces a superfluity which is not for them, and which still grows and renews, as it were to invite men to shear them every year.
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