Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Surfeit?

\Sur"feit\, n. [OE. surfet, OF. surfait, sorfait, excess, arrogance, crime, fr. surfaire, sorfaire, to augment, exaggerate, F. surfaire to overcharge; sur over + faire to make, do, L. facere. See {Sur-}, and {Fact}.] 1. Excess in eating and drinking. Let not Sir Surfeit sit at thy board. --Piers Plowman. Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made. --Shak. 2. Fullness and oppression of the system, occasioned often by excessive eating and drinking. To prevent surfeit and other diseases that are incident to those that heat their blood by travels. --Bunyan. 3. Disgust caused by excess; satiety. --Sir P. Sidney. Matter and argument have been supplied abundantly, and even to surfeit. --Burke.
\Sur"feit\, v. i. 1. To load the stomach with food, so that sickness or uneasiness ensues; to eat to excess. They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. --Shak. 2. To indulge to satiety in any gratification.
\Sur"feit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Surfeited}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Surfeiting}.] 1. 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; as, to surfeit one's self with sweets. 2. To fill to satiety and disgust; to cloy; as, he surfeits us with compliments. --V. Knox.