Definition of "surfeit"
surfeit
noun
countable and uncountable, plural surfeits
(countable) An excessive amount of something.
Quotations
With what could be a surfeit of candour, [Mike] Skinner has described DJing as more creative than playing his own songs, because, to paraphrase, of the "stress" and "creativity" of not knowing what he'll be doing in three minutes' time.
2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 8 April 2019
(uncountable) Overindulgence in either food or drink; overeating.
Quotations
I feel too much thy blessing: make it [this excess]less,For fear I surfeit!Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made.
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, [Act III, scene ii]
(countable) A sickness or condition caused by overindulgence.
Quotations
the Leaves they do eat to prevent surfeit and other diseases that are incident to those that heat their blood by travels
1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928,
Disgust caused by excess; satiety.
Quotations
Now for ſimilitudes in certain Printed diſcourſes, I thinke all Herberiſts, all ſtories of beaſts, foules, and fiſhes, are rifled vp, that they may come in multitudes to vvait vpon any of our conceits, which certainly is as abſurd a ſurfet to the eares as is poſsible.
a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], The Defence of Poesie, London: […] [Thomas Creede] for VVilliam Ponsonby, published 1595
verb
third-person singular simple present surfeits, present participle surfeiting, simple past and past participle surfeited
(transitive) To fill (something) to excess.
Quotations
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,That hath to instrument this lower worldAnd what is in’t,—the never-surfeited seaHath caused to belch up you;
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, [Act III, scene iii]
(transitive) To feed (someone) to excess (on, upon or with something).
Quotations
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.
1906, O. Henry, “The Furnished Room”, in The Four Million, New York: A.L. Burt, page 240
(intransitive, reflexive, figurative) To indulge (in something) to excess.
Quotations
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.
1748, William Gilpin, A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honourable Viscount Cobham, at Stow in Buckinghamshire, London: B. Seeley, page 54
(intransitive, reflexive) To become sick from overindulgence (both literally and figuratively).
Quotations
[…] they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing.
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, [Act I, scene ii]
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.
1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669, Act II, page 17