suffice
verbCA, US, UK /səˈfaɪs/ · UK /səˈfʌɪs/
Etymology From Middle English suffisen, from Middle French souffire, from Latin sufficiō (“supply, be adequate”), from sub (“under”) + faciō (“do, make”). Cognate with French suffire.
1
To be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be adequate; to be good enough.
- For this plum cake, two eggs should suffice.
- To recount almighty works, / What words or tongue of seraph can suffice?1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
2
To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.
- A joint of lamb sufficed even his enormous appetite.
- Lord Brougham's salary would have sufficed more than ninety Prussian judges.1838, The Church of England quarterly review, page 203:
3
Archaic To furnish; to supply adequately.
- During the festival, the temple suffices food to the beggars.
- The king sufficed his army with food and weapons before the great battle.
- Derived terms
- suffice it to say, sufficive, unsufficed
- Related terms
- satisfice, sufficient