Literary notes about exceed (AI summary)
The word "exceed" has been employed in literature with remarkable versatility, appearing both in literal, quantitative contexts and as a means to accentuate qualitative differences. In several works, authors use it to denote precise numerical limits or physical measurements—such as setting bounds for mathematical puzzles ([1], [2], [3]), specifying maximum dimensions or time constraints ([4], [5], [6]), or comparing numerical values in trade and logistics ([7], [8]). At the same time, "exceed" serves as a rhetorical tool to express superiority or intensify character traits and aesthetic qualities, as seen when describing the surpassing beauty of nature ([9], [10]) or the overwhelming force of character and emotion ([11], [12], [13]). Thus, whether highlighting a strict limit or emphasizing an extraordinary quality, the term consistently enriches the narrative by marking something as beyond the ordinary ([14], [15], [16]).
- The problem really amounts to finding the smallest prime such that the next higher prime shall exceed it by 10 at least.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - No rook's path over the chessboard can exceed this number of moves.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - "Look here, George," said his cousin Reginald Woolley: "by what fractional part does four-fourths exceed three-fourths?"
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - 4. Deliver one such address, not to exceed ten minutes in length.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - The whole circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty-five yards.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - The dimensions of the obstacles to be leaped over must be gradually increased; but no downward leap must ever exceed sixteen feet—five meters.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The exports by sea from Alexandreia exceed the imports.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) by Strabo - The total is divided by two, in order not to exceed the regulated limit of 1,200 credits for the maximum.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - I write, 5-1/2 P.M., here by the creek, nothing can exceed the quiet splendor and freshness around me.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - (All along, these nights, nothing can exceed the calm, fierce, golden, glistening domination of Mars over all the stars in the sky.)
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - Nothing could exceed her impatience and fretfulness.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - Nothing could exceed in beauty the contrast between these two excellent creatures.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - When the scene was over Jones said, “Why, Partridge, you exceed my expectations.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - "And I do assure you, ma'am," pursued Mrs Croft, "that nothing can exceed the accommodations of a man-of-war; I speak, you know, of the higher rates.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen - For the labors of Orpheus exceed the labors of Hercules, both in power and dignity, as the works of knowledge exceed the works of strength.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon - But if this people resembled Nero in their extravagance, much more did they resemble and even exceed him in cruelty and injustice.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
