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Satiate vs Sate vs Surfeit vs Cloy vs Pall vs Glut vs Gorge

Satiate, satesurfeitcloypallglutgorge are comparable when they mean to fill or become filled to the point of repletion.

Although both satiate and sate can imply no more than a complete satisfying, both terms more often imply an overfilling or an overfeeding so that there is no longer a pleasure in what once pleased or seemed desirable.

Surfeit distinctly implies a feeding or supplying to excess with consequent nausea or disgust.

Cloy stresses the resulting disgust or boredom more than the surfeit which induces them.

Pall differs from cloy only in its greater emphasis upon the loss of all power in something with which one is surfeited to challenge one’s interest or attention or to whet one’s appetite; the term therefore refers rather to things that tend to satiate than to the persons whose appetites or desires have been sated by such things.

Glut, like surfeit, implies excess in feeding or supplying but it stresses the consequent overloading rather than the extinction of appetite or desire; often it also suggests the stimulation of a greed that knows no limits except those imposed upon it by physical necessity.

Glut may be used also in reference to impersonal things, implying merely an overloading, and carrying no suggestion of greed or satiation.

Gorge usually implies the stimulation of greed but it distinctively suggests a glutting to the point almost of choking or bursting; the term therefore often implies the frustration rather than the satisfying of that greed.