Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Excess

Ex·cess′ (ĕk·sĕs′), n. [OE. exces, excess, ecstasy, L. excessus a going out, loss of self-possession, fr. excedere, excessum, to go out, go beyond: cf. F. excès. 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.