Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To meet present needs or requirements; be sufficient.
  • intransitive verb To be equal to a specified task; be capable.
  • intransitive verb To satisfy the needs or requirements of; be enough for.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be sufficient for.
  • To satisfy; content; be equal to the wants or demands of.
  • To afford in sufficient amount; supply adequately.
  • To be enough or sufficient; be equal to the end proposed; be adequate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate.
  • transitive verb To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.
  • transitive verb obsolete To furnish; to supply adequately.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate.
  • verb transitive To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.
  • verb To furnish; to supply adequately.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English suffisen, from Old French suffire, suffis-, from Latin sufficere : sub-, sub- + facere, to make; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English suffisen, from Middle French souffire, from Latin sufficiō ("supply, be adequate"), from sub ("under") + faciō ("do, make"). Cognate with French suffire.

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