 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Excess \Ex*cess"\, noun [OE. exces, excess, ecstasy, L. excessus a going out, loss of self-possession, fr. excedere, excessum, to go out, go beyond: cf. F. exc['e]s. See {Exceed}.]
1. The state of surpassing or going beyond limits; the being of a measure beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; that which exceeds what is usual or proper; immoderateness; superfluity; superabundance; extravagance; as, an excess of provisions or of light.
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, . . . Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. --Shak.
That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy. --Walsh.
2. An undue indulgence of the appetite; transgression of proper moderation in natural gratifications; intemperance; dissipation.
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. --Eph. v. 18.
Thy desire . . . leads to no excess That reaches blame. --Milton.
3. The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder; as, the difference between two numbers is the excess of one over the other.
{Spherical excess} (Geom.), the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
excess
adjective: more than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose excess weight"; "found some extra change lying on the dresser"; "yet another book on heraldry might be thought redundant"; "skills made redundant by technological advance"; "sleeping in the spare room"; "supernumerary ornamentation"; "it was supererogatory of her to gloat"; "delete superfluous (or unnecessary) words"; "extra ribs as well as other supernumerary internal parts"; "surplus cheese distributed to the needy" [syn: {extra}, {redundant}, {spare}, {supererogatory}, {superfluous}, {supernumerary}, {surplus}]
noun
1: a quantity much larger than is needed [syn: {surplus}, {surplusage}, {nimiety}]
2: immoderation as a consequence of going beyond sufficient or permitted limits [syn: {excessiveness}, {inordinateness}]
3: the state of being more than full [syn: {surfeit}, {overabundance}]
4: excessive indulgence; "the child was spoiled by overindulgence" [syn: {overindulgence}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
149 Moby Thesaurus words for "excess": Saturnalia, aggrandizement, amplification, ballyhoo, big talk, blowing up, burlesque, caricature, crapulence, crapulency, crapulousness, de trop, debauchery, dilatation, dilation, disentitlement, dispensable, dissipation, dissoluteness, drunkenness, empty claim, empty title, enhancement, enlargement, exaggerating, exaggeration, excessive, excessiveness, exorbitance, exorbitancy, expansion, expendable, expletive, extortionateness, extra, extravagance, extreme, false claim, fat, glut, gluttony, grandiloquence, gratuitous, heightening, huckstering, hyperbole, hyperbolism, immoderacy, immoderateness, immoderation, impropriety, in excess, inappropriateness, incontinence, indiscipline, indulgence, inflation, inordinacy, inordinateness, intemperance, intemperateness, inundation, invalid claim, lack of claim, leftover, leftovers, magnification, needless, nimiety, no claim, nonessential, outrageousness, overabundance, overage, overbalance, overdoing, overemphasis, overestimation, overflow, overflowing, overgrowth, overindulgence, overkill, overmeasure, overmuch, overpass, overplus, overproduction, overrun, overrunning, overspill, overspreading, overstatement, overstock, oversupply, pleonastic, plethora, plus, preposterousness, prodigality, profuseness, profusion, prolix, puffery, puffing up, redundancy, redundant, remaining, residual, self-indulgence, self-restraint, sensationalism, spare, stretching, superabundance, supererogation, supererogatory, superfluity, superfluous, superiority, superlative, supernumerary, surfeit, surplus, surplusage, swinishness, tall talk, tautologic, tautologous, to spare, too much, too-muchness, touting, travesty, uncalled-for, unconscionableness, unconstraint, uncontrol, undeservedness, undeservingness, undueness, unentitledness, unessential, unmeritedness, unnecessary, unneeded, unreasonableness, unrestraint, verbose
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
EXCESS, noun In morals, an indulgence that enforces by appropriate penalties the law of moderation.
Hail, high Excess -- especially in wine, To thee in worship do I bend the knee Who preach abstemiousness unto me -- My skull thy pulpit, as my paunch thy shrine. Precept on precept, aye, and line on line, Could ne'er persuade so sweetly to agree With reason as thy touch, exact and free, Upon my forehead and along my spine. At thy command eschewing pleasure's cup, With the hot grape I warm no more my wit; When on thy stool of penitence I sit I'm quite converted, for I can't get up. Ungrateful he who afterward would falter To make new sacrifices at thine altar!
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |