Also 4–7 excesse, 5–6 exces, (5 exesse, 6 excysse). [ad. F. excès, ad. L. excēss-us, n. of action f. excēdĕre to EXCEED.]
† 1. In literal sense: The action of going out or forth; adjournment (of Parliament). Obs. rare.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 581. Excessus, excesse, passynge oute.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords, App. (Camden), 131. That they be accquainted that Tuesday should be the day of excesse.
† b. fig. Departure from custom, reason, etc. Obs.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 51, ¶ 2. In all these glorious Excesses from the common Practice, did the happy Orlando live … in an uninterrupted Tranquility.
1738. Common Sense (1739), II. 84. Other fashionable Excesses from Reason.
† c. Excess (incorrectly access; cf. ACCESS 9, 10) of mind, soul, also simply excess: = L. excessus mentis, ecstasy, trance, stupefaction. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Acts x. 10. An axcess of soule, or rauysching of spirit [v.r. mynde] fel on hym. Ibid., xi. 5. I was in the citee of Ioppe preiynge, and I syȝ in excess of my soule a visioun.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 270 b. Saynt Peter was in excesse of mynde in the house of Symon Coryar. Ibid., 271. I sayd in myne excesse, euery man is a lyer.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Acts x. 10. There fel vpon him an excesse of minde.
1609. Bible (Douay), 2 Esdras xiii. 30. He shal come in excesse of minde upon them [1611 to the astonishment of them] that inhabite the earth.
† 2. ‘Violence of passion’ (J.); extravagant or rapturous feeling; unrestrained manifestation of grief. Obs.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., cxliv. Off thy distresse and excesse to haue reuth … I will [hir] pray full faire.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXXIII. xxx. La Bell Pucell must love you evermore, Which for her sake … Doth such actes by chyvalrous exces.
1724. Wodrow Corr. (1843), III. 120. The Priests under the Old Testament were, by a particular law, guarded against excesses upon the death of their relations.
1742. Collins, Ode, iii. To Simplicity, 44. Tho’ taste, tho’ genius, bless To some divine excess.
1775. in Ash.
1818. in Todd.
3. The action of overstepping (a prescribed limit), going beyond (one’s authority, rights, etc.); an instance of this. Chiefly in Law.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 248. She exceeded her power, in appointing to the issue of the son; and therefore the excess was void.
1891. Gladstone, in Daily News, 28 Jan., 3/2. Judges of courts of law … did not notice excess of jurisdiction on the part of the House.
† 4. Extravagant violation of law, decency or morality; outrageous conduct. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Melib., ¶ 563. Ye shul venge yow … by the lawe and noght by excesse ne by outrage.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxiv. 161. Punysyd exces and trespas.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., III. (1520), 20 b/1. Two were chosen that yf ony of theym wolde make ony excesse the other sholde governe hym.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 140 b. Be sory for your fall, and do due penaunce after the qualite and quantite of your excesse.
c. 1630. Milton, Ode Circumcision. The full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess.
1682. Evelyn, Diary (1827), III. 76. This excesse of making churches charnel-houses.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., III. 262. Ah … that I … the deeds Might punish of our suitors whose excess Enormous … I feel.
b. An instance of this; an outrage. Chiefly pl. Now with mixture of sense 5.
14[?]. Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 129. Leste by hir excesses þey schulde scorn þe good name of Cryste amonge þe pepil.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. xi. 240. The great … Governour of the World … brought about ends … to punish their [men’s] Excesses and Enormities.
1769. Junius Lett., i. 6. They [colonies] have been driven into excesses little short of rebellion.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 166. The excesses of the Star Chamber … had faded from the minds of men.
1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., I. I. iii. 139. Their excesses seem to have been inferior to those which provoked them.
5. The overstepping the limits of moderation; an instance of this: a. gen.
1552. Huloet, s.v., Excesse in aduauncyng or depressyng, as truer then God, falser then the Deuyll.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. viii. (1611), 143. To draw men from great excesse, it is not amisse.
1643. Denham, Cooper’s Hill, 10. One excesse Made both, by stirring to be greater, lesse.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 193. Excess in love … transports a man beyond himself.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, I. ii. 54. All excess is vicious.
1829. [H. B. Henderson], Bengalee, 182. The Hookah’s monstrous snake … That type of eastern Luxury’s excess.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 163. Excess … leads people into emotional transports.
b. spec. Intemperance in eating or drinking.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 514. How manye maladyes ffolwen of excesse and of glotonyes.
c. 1430. Lydg., in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 25. With holy men speke of holynesse … With drownkyn men do surfettes by excesse.
1578. Gude & Godlie Ball., 17. We pray his godly Maiestie To blys our meit … And saif vs fra exces and drunkinnes.
a. 1662. Duppa, Holy Rules Devot. (1675), 84. The body once heavy with Excess and Surfeits, hangs plummets on the nobler part.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., iv. (1738), 64. It is also in his power to forbear excess in eating and drinking.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Spectre Tappington. Apoplexy, induced by the excesses of the preceding night.
1859. O. W. Holmes, Punch-bowl, Poems 271. ’Tis but the fool that loves excess; hast thou a drunken soul?
6. The fact of exceeding something else in amount or degree; preponderance. † Also the fact of surpassing or excelling others (obs.). In excess of: to a greater amount or degree than.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Maxims St. (1651), 65. An excellency or excess above the rest, either in honour, wealth, or virtue.
1704. Newton, Opticks, II. II. (1721), 127. Rays … retain their colorific qualities, by which those of any sort … do by their Excess and Predominance cause their proper Colour to appear.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Introd. Wks. I. 112. In things whose excess is not judged by greater or smaller, as smoothness and roughness [etc.].
1838. De Morgan, Ess. Probab., 115. There can be no possible reason for an excess of white, which does not equally … apply in favour of an excess of black.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. iii. 242. The quantity we receive is in excess of the quantity lost.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, ii. 30. When … one or more muscles act in excess of their opponents, a squint is produced.
b. The amount by which one number or quantity exceeds another. Spherical excess: (see quot. 1840). Excess fare (on railways): a payment made by a person travelling beyond the place, or in a higher class than that, specified on his ticket. Excess luggage: luggage over the weight for which a passenger is allowed free carriage.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., M iv. Compare those excesses and wantes well together.
1660. Barrow, Euclid, I. Axiom xv. (1714), 8. If to equal things, you add unequal, the excess of the wholes shall be equal to the excess of the additions.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xviii. 201. The accumulation of the daily excesses.
1831. Brewster, Optics, iv. 36. Divide the index of refraction by its excess above unity.
1840. Snowball, Spherical Trigonom., § 62 (ed. 6), 36. The quantity A + B + C – 180°, by which the sum of the degrees in the angles of the spherical triangles exceeds 180°, is called the Spherical Excess of the triangle.
1882. Standard, 2 Sept., 6/4. He received a book for the purpose of giving receipts to passengers for ‘excess’ fares.
† c. Usury, interest. Obs.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 63. Shylocke, albeit I neither lend nor borrow By taking, nor by giuing of excesse.
7. The state of exceeding or being in greater quantity or degree than is usual or necessary; exuberance, superabundance; an instance of this; an extreme degree or amount; an ‘extreme,’ a ‘height’ (of wickedness, etc.). † Of excess = in abundance.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 335. Þere is noȝt gret passynge and exces … in chele noþer in hete.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. v. The medlynge in conclusion So was ennewed by proportion That fynally excesse was there none.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., xi. 207. Than I to hym gaue strokes of exces.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 269. The excesse of vertue worketh no manner of annoyance.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. i. 73. So distribution should vndoo excesse, And each man haue enough.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 570/88. Commend the large excess Of spacious Vineyards; cultivate the less.
1719. Young, Busiris, IV. i. To behold thee In such excess of sorrow, quite destroys me.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xxvi. (1819), 406. Their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it, all conduce to show their excess of spirits.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. v. 193. This Mr. Ellis treated as the highest excess of insolence.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 636. As Kirke was not the first, so he was not the last, to whom this excess of wickedness was popularly imputed.
† b. concr. in pl. Resources beyond the ‘necessaries’ of life; luxuries. Obs.
1658. Whole Duty Man, xiv. § 16. 112. That deny relief to their poor parents, that cannot part with their own excesses and superfluities.
c. Chem. An amount greater than is needed for a specific purpose, e.g., for combination with other elements, or for dissolving a given quantity of a substance. Also In (great) excess.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 610. It might be called supersulphate of ammonia, as it contains an excess of acid. Ibid. (1838), Chem. Org. Bodies, 204. At first there was an excess of the former salt, but afterwards xanthate of potash was added till it constituted an excess.
1844–57. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (ed. 5), 383. Liquor potassæ must then be added in great excess; a precipitate of hydrated oxide of copper first falls, which redissolves in excess of alkali.
8. The fact or state of being in greater amount or degree than is beneficial or right; ‘faulty superfluity’ (J.); an excessive amount or degree (of anything). Sometimes in contrast with defect.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 276. I bidde never as to my dele But of the hole an halven dele. That is none excess as me thenketh.
1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., 72. Excesse of mete feblith and dulleth a mannys wyttes.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 220. Oh, I haue fed vpon this woe already, And now excesse of it will make me surfet.
1691. Hartcliffe, Virtues, 137. The two Extremes whereof are; on the defect ἀοργησία, to be free from Anger;… The other Extreme in the Excess, is ὀργιλότης, a Vice, which … hath not yet found an English Name.
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 314. If the Spirits flag during the Operation from the Excess of the Evacuations.
1706. Atterbury, Serm., 28 Sept., 14 (J.). Parsimony … is yet the more pardonable Excess of the two.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., i. (1867), 16. If … enthusiasm were only an error in degree or a mere fault by excess.
a. 1871. Grote, Eth. Fragm., v. (1876), 165. We ought to choose the middle point and not either the excess or the defect.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 9. The excess of tyranny in Persia and the excess of liberty at Athens have been the ruin of both.
b. Phrases: In, to (an) excess, to carry (something), to drink, eat, go, run to excess. † (Object) of excess, that possesses some quality in excess.
1526–34. Tindale, 1 Pet. iv. 4. That ye runne not also with them vnto the same excesse of ryote.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Goodness (Arb.), 199. The desire of Power in Excesse, caused the Angels to fall. Ibid. (1626), Sylva, § 261. An Object of surcharge or excess, destroyeth the Sense: As the light of the Sun the eye, a violent sound (near the Ear) the hearing.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1655), II. 71. [Canary wine] leaves less dreggs behind, though one drink it to exces.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XI. iii. Sophia … was yielding to an excess.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 97. Till carried to excess … This fav’rite good begets peculiar pain.
1838. W. Beaumont, Exper. Digestion (ed. Combe), 252. Eating voraciously or to excess.
1841. Miall, Nonconf., I. 1. At present we have government in excess.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., vi. 110. Raw meat and other nutritious substances, given in excess, kill the leaves.
¶ 9. = ACCESS 10.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 D iij. They counceyll them that haue the feuers … to passe the excesse that ought to come the thyrde day or no.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 168. In twelue dayes I had a thousand bloudy stooles (which excesse kild our Lord Ambassadour Sir Dodmore Cotton at that time).
