| / English Dictionary |
SUPERFLUOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
More than is needed, desired, or required
Example:
surplus cheese distributed to the needy
Synonyms:
excess; extra; redundant; spare; supererogatory; superfluous; supernumerary; surplus
Classified under:
Similar:
unnecessary; unneeded (not necessary)
Derivation:
superfluity (extreme excess)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
Example:
senseless violence
Synonyms:
otiose; pointless; purposeless; senseless; superfluous; wasted
Classified under:
Similar:
worthless (lacking in usefulness or value)
Context examples:
This was said with a careless, abstracted indifference, which showed that my solicitude was, at least in his opinion, wholly superfluous.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Miss Micawber I found made snug for stormy weather, in the same manner; with nothing superfluous about her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He drove so directly to the core of the matter, divesting a question always of all superfluous details, and with such an air of finality, that I seemed to find myself struggling in deep water, with no footing under me.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
There was no superfluous ornament in the room—not one modern piece of furniture, save a brace of workboxes and a lady's desk in rosewood, which stood on a side-table: everything—including the carpet and curtains—looked at once well worn and well saved.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
We talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannize over them too; we are fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I trust that the labour and hazard of an investigation—of which the smallest results have been slowly pieced together, in the pressure of arduous avocations, under grinding penurious apprehensions, at rise of morn, at dewy eve, in the shadows of night, under the watchful eye of one whom it were superfluous to call Demon—combined with the struggle of parental Poverty to turn it, when completed, to the right account, may be as the sprinkling of a few drops of sweet water on my funeral pyre. I ask no more.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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