glut

1 of 3

verb (1)

glutted; glutting

transitive verb

1
: to flood (the market) with goods so that supply exceeds demand
The market is glutted with oil.
2
: to fill especially with food to satiety
glutted themselves at the restaurant buffet

glut

2 of 3

noun

1
: an excessive quantity : oversupply
a glut of oil on the market
2
archaic : the act or process of glutting

glut

3 of 3

verb (2)

glutted; glutting

transitive verb

archaic
: to swallow greedily
Choose the Right Synonym for glut

satiate, sate, surfeit, cloy, pall, glut, gorge mean to fill to repletion.

satiate and sate may sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire.

years of globe-trotting had satiated their interest in travel
readers were sated with sensationalistic stories

surfeit implies a nauseating repletion.

surfeited themselves with junk food

cloy stresses the disgust or boredom resulting from such surfeiting.

sentimental pictures that cloy after a while

pall emphasizes the loss of ability to stimulate interest or appetite.

a life of leisure eventually begins to pall

glut implies excess in feeding or supplying.

a market glutted with diet books

gorge suggests glutting to the point of bursting or choking.

gorged themselves with chocolate

Examples of glut in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Requiem for the Featherweights The 2023 draft class was glutted with shifty, speedy receivers who wouldn’t weigh 180 pounds even after a never-ending pasta bowl. Mike Tanier, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2023 In a story glutted with broad caricatures, Hunt and Liddy are maybe the broadest and perhaps the least inherently sympathetic. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Apr. 2023 In that case, our oceans could be glutted with rip-roaring cybernetic frogs, Jurassic-Park style. Stav Dimitropoulos, Popular Mechanics, 28 Feb. 2023 Luxury can swiftly glut. Lauren Groff, The Atlantic, 21 June 2022 Now add on to that glut another category of product that stores have to deal with: returns. Parija Kavilanz, CNN, 26 June 2022 The internet is glutted with second-by-second countdown clocks and the mania is even spurring a hike in hiring by crypto firms worldwide. Vildana Hajric, Bloomberg.com, 19 Mar. 2020 Now, thanks largely to those export terminals, the global market is glutted. Ryan Dezember, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2020 That’s even as the market is already glutted, with prices down about 30% in 12 months. Fortune, 12 Nov. 2019
Noun
There had been famous and adulterous couples before, but not in wide-screen, and not with the glut and the glare that came to be so pronounced in the case of Burton and Taylor. Andrew O’Hagan, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2023 The fossil footprints of hungry birds likely document one of Earth’s earliest avian migrations, with the feathery fliers timing their visit to what was then part of the southern pole to enjoy a warm-season glut of squishy invertebrate food. Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Nov. 2023 Inventory Glut The overall chip industry is still contending with a sales slump, worsened by a glut of inventory. Gillian Tan, Fortune, 13 Sep. 2023 The financial district’s shift offers a road map for, and glimmer of hope about, what could happen in neighborhoods from Lower to Midtown Manhattan that are saddled with a glut of empty offices as companies continue to slash space in the pandemic’s wake. Matthew Haag, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2023 This year, a glut of solar equipment in the market and project delays have roiled the entire solar sector. WSJ, 10 Nov. 2023 There are a variety of factors behind the glut, but at its core there’s overproduction and underconsumption in France. Mike Desimone and Jeff Jenssen, Robb Report, 13 Oct. 2023 For many of us, that’s still completely or partially at home, leaving a major glut of office space where millions of Americans used to spend 40-plus hours per week. Sydney Lake, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2023 The court’s decision in NCAA v. Murphy opened the door for the glut of sports-betting ads and promotions that now entangle all of professional sports. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 21 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'glut.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb (1) and Noun

Middle English glouten, probably from Anglo-French glutir to swallow, from Latin gluttire — more at glutton

Verb (2)

probably from obsolete glut, noun, swallow

First Known Use

Verb (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 2

Noun

circa 1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb (2)

1600, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of glut was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near glut

Cite this Entry

“Glut.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glut. Accessed 9 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

glut

1 of 2 verb
glutted; glutting
1
: to fill with food to the point of discomfort : stuff
2
: to flood with more goods than are needed
the market was glutted with fruit

glut

2 of 2 noun
: too much of something

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