sb. and a. Pl. -uses († -usses). Also 4–6 -pluis, 5 -ples, -plice, 5–6 -pluse. [a. AF., OF. surplus, so(u)rplus (whence med.L. surplus) = Pr. sobreplus, ad. med.L. superplūs, f. super SUPER- IV + plūs more.] A. sb.
1. What remains over and above what has been taken or used; an amount remaining in excess. † Also, (a) superfluity, superabundance.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 60. Þey gonnen trete Here prisoneres to chaungen most and leste, And for the surplus, yeue sommes grete.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 5859. Oonly for to han victoire With-oute surplus of wynnyng.
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 1. The Wever … shall … restore to the same Clothier the surpluis of the same yerne.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 46. He hath faults (with surplus) to tyre in repetition. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., V. iii. 7. It is a surplus of your Grace, which neuer My life may last to answere.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 391. In th’ Holsters … Two aged Pistols he did stow, Among the surplus of such meat As in his Hose he could not get.
1736. Gentl. Mag., VI. 585/1. In Case the future Produce of those Duties should amount to more than 800,000l. a Year, those Surplusses were by them … appropriated to the Civil List.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 236. In every prosperous community something more is produced than goes to the immediate support of the producer. This surplus forms the income of the landed capitalist.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc., vii. 400. Pour the surplus of this liquid immediately away.
1827. Jarman, Powell’s Devises (ed. 3), II. 85. That where there was a direction to sell land for a particular purpose, the surplus did not form ‘part of the personal estate, so as to pass by the residuary bequest.’
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VI. i. A brief, sheeted stream bore its surplus into the lake.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 95. The rent of better land will consist of the surplus of its produce over that of the poorest cultivated land.
1879. Lubbock, Addr. Pol. & Educ., vi. 125. We are slightly diminishing our Debt in two ways, by accidental surpluses and by terminable annuities.
1891. Photogr. Ann., II. 194. Fold the paper over the edge of frame and double down the surplus on the side.
1905. Act 5 Edw. VII., c. 17 § 5. Any surpluses … which may be effected by the saving of expenditure upon votes within the same department.
† 2. What remains to make up a whole; the remainder, the rest. Obs.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3675. Who therto may wynnen, ywisse, He of the surplus of the praye May lyfe in hoope to gette some daye.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, II. ii. (MS. Bodl. 263), 97/2. Touchyng the surplus off his gouernaunce … In Iosephus his story ye may reede.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, x. 272. There are com agayn but thre hundred, and the surplus is all slayn or taken.
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, 1812. And al the surplice of the schame Scho wyll bere bauldly with the blam.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), IV. xxvii. 323. To knowe the tokens of deth to the ende that he may denounce as well vnto the pacyente as vnto his frendes that they puruaye of the surplus.
1518. H. Watson, Hist. Oliver of Castile (Roxb.), C 3 b. Yf that thou haue not compassyon vpon me the surplus of my dayes shal be in anguyssh.
1597. Beard, Theatre God’s Judgem. (1612), 539. Whatsoeuer punishments the wicked suffer before they die, they … must descend into the appointed place to receiue the surplus of their paiments which is due vnto them.
1759. Mills, trans. Duhamel’s Husb., II. ii. 166. I left for the luserne, nine beds,… and destined the surplus to be sowed with wheat.
b. attrib. passing into adj. That is in excess of what is taken, used or needed.
1641. Jrnls. Ho. Comm., II. 177. What is fit to be done with the surplus Money.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. xi. I. 203. They now exchange their surplus peltry, for blankets, firearms, and brandy.
1795. Vancouver, Agric. Essex, 181. To relieve the wet heavy woodlands of their surplus water.
1812. G. Chalmers, Dom. Econ. Gt. Brit., 66. The annual value of the surplus produce of the land, and labour of England, which was then exported to foreign countries, amounted only to 4,086,087 l.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., II. i. (1881), 88. The natural law gets rid of surplus population.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 211/1. The fundamental principle of the Marx school … is the theory of ‘surplus value,’—the doctrine … that, after the labourer has been paid the wage necessary for the subsistence of himself and family, the surplus produce of his labour is appropriated by the capitalist who exploits it.
1893. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 109. Until all the surplus gelatine is expelled.
