surfeit of confidence
- noun
- /ˈsɜr.fɪt əv ˈkɒn.fɪ.dəns/
- Formal
:
exceso de confianza
- His surfeit of confidence made him underestimate the difficulty of the task.
Examples
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She approached the meeting with a surfeit of confidence, which impressed some and annoyed others.
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Don't let a surfeit of confidence cloud your judgment!
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A surfeit of confidence can sometimes blind people to their own mistakes.
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His surfeit of confidence led him to underestimate his opponents.
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A surfeit of confidence can sometimes blind people to their own mistakes.
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His surfeit of confidence made him underestimate the difficulty of the task.
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Don't let a surfeit of confidence cloud your judgment!
Synonyms
11
4.4
A feeling of being too sure of yourself when you are wrong
1
8.7
Being too confident in a rude way
Being much more sure of yourself than you should be
Too much confidence that ignores other people's views
Antonyms
How Confident
- Literature
39
8.9
- Formal
11
4.4
419
1.9
21
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
surfeit + of + confidence
The phrase is fully compositional: 'surfeit' means an excessive amount and 'confidence' means self-assurance, with 'of' simply linking the two, so the overall meaning 'excessive confidence' is directly derivable from the parts. Although 'surfeit' is somewhat formal/rare, if a B1 learner knows the constituent words the meaning is transparent and predictable.
Etymology
Surfeit of confidence uses surfeit (meaning 'too much') and confidence (belief in yourself) and may come from the image of eating so much you feel sick. That's why it means 'too much confidence' — having more self-belief than is safe, which can make you ignore risks and make mistakes.