Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Surplus; excess.
- noun An excess of words; verbiage.
- noun Law Words or allegations in a legal document or pleading that do not have any legal value.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Surplus; excess; redundancy.
- noun In law, any allegation or statement in a pleading or proceeding not necessary to its adequacy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Surplus; excess; overplus.
- noun (Law) Matter in pleading which is not necessary or relevant to the case, and which may be rejected.
- noun (Accounts), obsolete A greater disbursement than the charge of the accountant amounts to.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
surplus ; asuperabundance . - noun law Matter in
pleading which is notnecessary orrelevant to thecase , and may berejected . - noun finance A greater
disbursement than thecharge of theaccountant amounts to.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a quantity much larger than is needed
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Avoiding surplusage is important, especially since judges have enough to read.
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Furthermore I said to him, “O my brother, I am wont to cast up my shop accounts at the head of every year, and whatso I shall find of surplusage is between me and thee.”
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Evidently, then, self-sacrifice may be wide-spread and may permeate the institutions of ordinary life; being found even in occupations primarily ordered by principles of give and take, where it expresses itself in a kind of surplusage of giving above what is prescribed in the contract.
The Nature of Goodness George Herbert Palmer 1887
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The hypothesis of female preference, stripped of the aesthetic surplusage which is psychologically both unnecessary and unproven, is really only different in degree from that which Mr. Wallace admits in principle when he says that it is probable that the female is pleased or excited by the display.
Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880
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"surplusage" as though he were to give a written declaration that he was
Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General Charles James Lever 1839
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Instead, we conclude that the General Assembly removed this phrase because it was aware of our prior decisions and the constitutional import of the detriment to the child determination, and believed that including the detriment to the child language — which referenced a long-standing constitutional standard that existed independent of the statute itself — was mere surplusage.
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“Gun box” and “case” have the same meaning (rendering one term in a list mere surplusage) if we say so.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Gov. Pawlenty’s Next Court Pick 2010
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By the way, I agree with Richard Riley that “and subject to the police power thereof” is a surplusage, and such surplusage may actually turn out to be quite dangerous.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Help Draft the Federalism Restoration Amendment 2010
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And the olive, a mere surplusage perhaps, but without it, the martini is too modest, too plain
With Emily Dickinson as Walt Whitman Walks in the Bar Con Chapman 2011
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It seems she has only to look at a dish, no matter who has cooked it, and immediately divine its lack or its surplusage, and prescribe a treatment that transforms it into something indescribably different and delicious -- My, how I do eat!
CHAPTER XX 2010
bilby commented on the word surplusage
An excess of sausages.
August 15, 2008