surpluses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of surplus.

   Successive budget surpluses allowed the city to pay down its debt.

   Warehouses across the region were packed with unsold surpluses.

   Note

   Only the countable uses take a plural. When surplus means excess in general, it stays singular (a surplus of goods). Separate amounts can be counted, and then they become surpluses: one year's treasury excess after another, the leftovers of several earmarked funds, or a firm's assets after its debts. The ending is a plain -es after the final s, with no doubled consonant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of surplus.

   The department surpluses outdated equipment at the end of each fiscal year.

   When a unit surpluses its gear, the property office logs every item first.

   Note

   A transitive verb made from the noun. An office surpluses old vehicles or a company surpluses staff when it declares them more than it needs and sells them off or lets them go. The spelling is identical to the noun plural, so position tells them apart. A direct object right after the word marks the verb; without one, read it as the noun.

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