c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 581 Excessus, excesse, passynge oute.

1621 H. Elsynge Notes Deb. House of Lords (1870) App. 131 That they be accquainted that Tuesday should be the day of excesse.

1709 R. 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.

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds xi. 5 I was in the citee of Joppe preiynge, and I syȝ in excess of my soule a visioun.

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds x. 10 An axcess of soule, or rauysching of spirit [a1400 N.Y. Publ. Lib. mynde], fel on hym.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. a*vi Saynt Peter was in excesse of mynde in the house of Symon Coryar.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. a*vii I sayd in myne excesse, euery man is a lyer.

1582 Bible (Rheims) Acts x. 10 There fel vpon him an excesse of minde.

1610 Bible (Douay) II. 4 Esdras xiii. 30 He shal come in excesse of minde upon them [1611 to the astonishment of them] that inhabite the earth.

c1386 G. Chaucer Melibeus ⁋563 Ye shul venge yow..by the lawe and noght by excesse ne by outrage.

c1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxiv. 161 Punysyd exces and trespas.

1520 Chron. Eng. iii. f. 20^v/1 Two were chosen that yf ony of theym wolde make ony excesse the other sholde governe hym.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. BBBviii^v Be..sory for your fall, and do due penaunce after the qualite & quantite of your excesse.

1645 J. Milton Upon Circumcision in Poems 21 The full wrath beside Of vengeful Justice bore for our excess.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1683 (1955) IV. 304 This excesse of making Churches Charnel-houses.

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Odyssey in Iliad & Odyssey II. iii. 262 Ah..that I..the deeds Might punish of our suitors whose excess Enormous..I feel.

14.. Prose Legends in Anglia VIII. 129 Leste by hir excesses þey schulde scorn þe good name of Cryste.

a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) ii. xi. 240 The great..Governour of the World..brought about ends..to punish their [men's] Excesses and Enormities.

1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. i. 10 They have been driven into excesses little short of rebellion.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 166 The excesses of the Star Chamber..had faded from the minds of men.

1876 J. H. Newman Hist. Sketches I. i. iii. 139 Their excesses seem to have been inferior to those which provoked them.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum (at cited word) Excesse in aduauncyng or depressyng, as truer then God, falser then the Deuyll.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iv. viii. 184 To draw men from great excesse, it is not amisse.

1642 J. Denham Cooper's Hill 18 One excesse Made both, by stirring to be greater, less.

1752 D. Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 193 Excess in love..transports a man beyond himself.

1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho I. ii. 54 All excess is vicious.

1819 H. B. Henderson Satires in India iv. 52 The Hookah's monstrous snake..: That type of eastern Luxury's excess.

1878 J. Morley Carlyle 163 Excess..leads people into emotional transports.

c1386 G. Chaucer Pardoner's Tale 514 How manye maladyes ffolwen of excesse and of glotonyes.

c1430 J. Lydgate 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.

1662 B. Duppa Holy Rules Devot. (1675) 84 The body, once heavy with Excess and Surfeits, hangs plummets on the nobler part.

1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature iv. 64 It is also in his power to forbear excess in eating and drinking.

1840 R. H. Barham Spectre of Tappington in Ingoldsby Legends 1st Ser. 6 Apoplexy, induced by the excesses of the preceding night.

1859 O. W. Holmes On Lend. Punch-bowl in Poems 271 'Tis but the fool that loves excess; hast thou a drunken soul?

a1618 W. Raleigh Maxims of State (1651) 64 An excellency or excess above the rest, either in honour, wealth, or virtue.

1704 I. Newton Opticks ii. i. 107 Rays..retain their colorific qualities, by which those of any sort..do by their excess and predominance cause their proper Colour to appear.

1759 E. Burke Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful (ed. 2) Introd. 27 In things whose excess is not judged by greater or smaller, as smoothness and roughness [etc.].

1838 A. De Morgan Ess. Probabilities 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 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. iii. 242 The quantity we receive is in excess of the quantity lost.

1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 30 When..one or more muscles act in excess of their opponents, a squint is produced.

1557 R. Record Whetstone of Witte sig. Miv Compare those excesses and wantes well together.

1660 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements i. 8 If to equall things you adde things unequall, the excesse of the wholes shall be equall to the excesse of the additions.

1812 R. Woodhouse Elem. Treat. Astron. xviii. 201 The accumulation of the daily excesses.

1831 D. Brewster Treat. Optics iv. 36 Divide the index of refraction by its excess above unity.

1840 Snowball Spherical Trigonom. (ed. 5) §63 34 The quantity..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.

1911 A. Bennett Card xi. 261 How much did you pay for the excess luggage?

1915 W. Owen Let. 1 Aug. (1967) 350 The said friend, having no baggage, will lighten my excess-luggage-charge.

1915 Act 5 & 6 Geo. V c. 89 §38 Excess Profits Duty... There shall be charged, levied, and paid on the amount by which the profits arising from any trade or business to which this Part of this Act applies, in any accounting period which ended after the fourth day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen, and before the first day of July nineteen hundred and fifteen, exceeded, by more than two hundred pounds, the pre-war standard of profits as defined for the purposes of this Part of this Act, a duty (in this Act referred to as ‘excess profits duty’) of an amount equal to fifty per cent. of that excess.

1915 Chemist & Druggist 87 521/1 As regards the excess profits tax, the special appeal tribunal will be competent [etc.].

1940 G. Crowther Paying for War 22 It is very right and proper that there should be an Excess Profits Tax and that it should have been imposed in the first month of the war.

1955 Times 2 May 20/1 At least we were freed from the ill-conceived Excess Profits Levy.

1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice i. iii. 60 Shylocke..I neither lend nor borrow By taking nor by giuing of excesse . View more context for this quotation

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 335 Þere is noȝt gret passynge and exces..in chele noþer in hete.

1430 J. Lydgate tr. Hist. Troy i. v The medlynge in conclusion So was ennewed by proportion That fynally excesse was there none.

?1504 S. Hawes Example of Vertu sig. ff.ii Than I to hym gaue strokes of exces.

1576 A. Fleming tr. Hippocrates in Panoplie Epist. 269 The excesse of vertue worketh no manner of annoyance.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xv. 68 So distribution should vnder excesse, And each man haue enough. View more context for this quotation

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 88 Commend the large excess Of spacious Vineyards; cultivate the less. View more context for this quotation

1719 E. Young Busiris iv. 49 To behold thee In such Excess of Sorrow, quite destroys me.

1802 W. Paley Nat. Theol. xxvi. 492 Their vivacity; their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it,..all conduce to show their excess of spirits.

1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India II. iv. v. 193 This [he] treated as the highest excess of insolence.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 636 Kirke..was not the last, to whom this excess of wickedness was popularly imputed.

1658 R. Allestree Pract. Christian Graces; or, Whole Duty of Man xiv. §16. 293 That deny relief to their poor Parents, that cannot part with their own excesses, and superfluities.

1807 T. Thomson Syst. Chem. (ed. 3) II. 610 It might be called supersulphate of ammonia, as it contains an excess of acid.

1838 T. Thomson 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.

1857 E. L. Birkett Bird's Urinary 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.

1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis II. 276 I bidde never as to my dele But of the hole an halven dele. That is none excess as me thenketh.

1493 Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) xxv. sig. Fiv^v/2 Excesse of mete..feblith and dulleth a mannys wyttes.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) iii. i. 219 I haue fed vpon this woe already, And now excesse of it will make me surfet. View more context for this quotation

1691 J. Hartcliffe Treat. 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.

1706 F. Atterbury Serm. Guild-Hall Chapel 12 Parsimony..is yet the more pardonable Excess of the two.

1725 N. Robinson New Theory of Physick 314 If the Spirits flag during the Operation from the Excess of the Evacuations.

1829 I. Taylor Nat. Hist. Enthusiasm (1867) i. 16 If..enthusiasm were only an error in degree or a mere fault by excess.

a1871 G. Grote Fragm. Ethical Subj. (1876) v. 165 We ought to choose the middle point and not either the excess or the defect.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) V. 9 The excess of tyranny in Persia and the excess of liberty at Athens have been the ruin of both.

1526 Bible (Tyndale) 1 Pet. iv. 4 That ye runne not also with them vnto the same excesse of ryote.

1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 67 The desire of Power in Excesse, caused the Angels to fall.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §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.

1647 J. Howell New Vol. of Lett. 144 [Canary wine] leaves least dreggs behind, though one drinke it to exces.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xi. iii. 113 Sophia..was yielding to an Excess . View more context for this quotation

1764 O. Goldsmith Traveller 6 'Till, carried to excess..This favourite good begets peculiar pain.

1838 W. Beaumont Exper. Digestion 252 Eating voraciously or to excess.

1841 E. Miall in Nonconformist 1 1 At present we have government in excess.

1875 C. Darwin Insectivorous Plants vi. 110 Raw meat and other nutritious substances, given in excess, kill the leaves.