ppl. a. [f. SUFFICE v. + -ING2.] That suffices for a purpose or object; sufficient, adequate, satisfying. (Cf. all-sufficing, quot. 1623 s.v. ALL- 7, SELF-SUFFICING ppl. a.)
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiv. 117. Draw thy sword, and giue mee, Suffising strokes for death.
a. 1640. Wotton, in Farr, S. P. Jas. I. (1848), 248. Nor shrubs alone feel thy sufficing hand.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. 1851, III. 255. I had no fear but that the authors of Smectymnuus … were prepar’d … to returne a suffizing answer.
1827. Scott, Highl. Widow, ii. The death of MacTavish Mhor was, in her apprehension, a sufficing reason.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., cii. III. 4. And if the representation was such as to send sufficing men to parliament, it would be known which.
1905. E. Clodd, Animism, § 7. 41. The sufficing materials for belief in an entity in the body, but not of it.
Hence Sufficingly adv., so as to suffice; Sufficingness, sufficiency (cf. SELF-SUFFICINGNESS).
1821. Examiner, 316/2. [She] is consequently more sufficingly suited to the various demands of the character.
1841. L. Hunt, Seer (1864), II. 3. Beautiful present sufficingness of a cat’s imagination!
