suffice

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /səˈfaɪs/

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• Rhymes: -aɪs

suffice (third-person singular simple present suffices, present participle sufficing, simple past and past participle sufficed)

1. (intransitive) 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.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     To recount almighty works, / What words or tongue of seraph can suffice?

2. (transitive) To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.

   A joint of lamb sufficed even his enormous appetite.

   • 1838, The Church of England quarterly review (page 203)

     Lord Brougham's salary would have sufficed more than ninety Prussian judges.

3. To furnish; to supply adequately.

• Commonly used in the phrase suffice it to say.
• Mostly used in modal verb constructions, such as: Half a loaf per day will suffice. This is much more common than the direct form Half a loaf per day suffices.

• (be enough) work, do

• satisfice
• sufficient

• suffice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• suffice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• suffice at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Cuffies, cuffies

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsuf.fi.ke/, [ˈsʊf.fɪ.kɛ]

suffice

1. second-person singular present active imperative of sufficiō