surfeit

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”).

noun

1. (countable) An excessive amount of something.
   A surfeit of wheat is driving down the price.
   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. 26 January 2019, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-08
2. (uncountable) Overindulgence in either food or drink; overeating.
   Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made.
3. (countable) A sickness or condition caused by overindulgence.
   King Henry I is said to have died of a surfeit of lampreys.
4. Disgust caused by excess; satiety.
5. (countable) A group of skunks.

verb

1. (transitive) To fill (something) to excess.
2. (transitive) To feed (someone) to excess (on, upon or with something).
   She surfeited her children on sweets.
   […] 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. 1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, London: Henry Herringman, Reflection 10, page 186
   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
   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. 1909, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 8, section 1, p. 318
3. (transitive) To make (someone) sick as a result of overconsumption.
   […] that proportion of meat surfetteth, and surchargeth the stomacks of some, which is not enough to satisfie the hunger of others, 1640, Thomas Fuller, Joseph’s Partie-Colored Coat, London: John Williams
   […] I imagine him poisoned by his wines, or surfeited by a favourite dish; 2 January 1755, George Colman, The Connoisseur, volume 1, number 49, London: R. Baldwin, page 299
4. (transitive, figurative) To supply (someone) with something to excess; to disgust (someone) through overabundance.
   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.
   […] he shan’t shut me up in this dismal castle, and nauseate me with his surfeiting fondness: 1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 4, Book 10, Chapter 3, p. 18
   […] I suppose his majesty thought we had enough of it on the field, and did not wish to surfeit us with glory. 1844 Jun, Charles Lever, chapter 53, in Tom Burke of “Ours”, volume 2, Dublin: William Curry, page 31
   The image-surfeited are likely to find sunsets corny; they now look, alas, too much like photographs. 1977, Susan Sontag, “The Heroism of Vision”, in On Photography, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 77
5. (transitive) To satisfy (someone's appetite) to excess (both literally and figuratively).
   […] his appetite for vulgar praise had not yet been surfeited; 1796, Maria Edgeworth, “The Mimic”, in The Parent’s Assistant; or, Stories for Children, volume 2, London: J. Johnson, page 98
   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, 1922, Lenore Richards, Nola Treat, chapter 2, in Quantity Cookery,, Boston: Little, Brown, page 8
6. (intransitive, reflexive) To overeat or feed to excess (on or upon something).
   Those who do not surfeit themselves do not weary quickly of any particular article of diet. 1917, R. L. Alsaker, chapter 16, in Maintaining Health, New York: Frank E. Morrison, page 174
7. (intransitive, reflexive, figurative) To indulge (in something) to excess.
   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
   […] 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. 1869, Mark Twain, chapter 47, in The Innocents Abroad, Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, page 496
8. (intransitive, reflexive) To become sick from overindulgence (both literally and figuratively).
   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? 1861, Herbert Spencer, chapter 4, in Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical,, London: Williams and Norgate, page 149