Word.ws English Dictionary

too much of a good thing

too much of a good thing phrase: something enjoyable or beneficial which, nevertheless, becomes bothersome or harmful in large quantities or over an extended period of time.

Phrase

too much of a good thing

  1. Something enjoyable or beneficial which, nevertheless, becomes bothersome or harmful in large quantities or over an extended period of time.
    • "If I must say what I think," continued Mr. Rushworth, "in my opinion it is very disagreeable to be always rehearsing. It is having too much of a good thing. I am not so fond of acting as I was at first.[…]"1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 26
    • "I like a woman with spirit," said Cradell. / "Oh, so do I. But one may have too much of a good thing."1864, Anthony Trollope, chapter IV, in The Small House at Allington

Examples of too much of a good thing in a sentence

  • "That you won't either," said Muriel, "Two's company; seven's too much of a good thing."c. 1922, D. H. Lawrence, “Tickets, Please”, in England, My England:
  • We are surrounded by hundreds of them every day — they're in our furnishings, our cosmetics, our vinyl floor tiles and plastic baby bottles. […] Are they too much of a good thing?2003 July 20, James Geary, “Risky business”, in Time:

Synonyms of too much of a good thing

Questions about too much of a good thing

What does too much of a good thing mean?
Too much of a good thing means something enjoyable or beneficial which, nevertheless, becomes bothersome or harmful in large quantities or over an extended period of time.
How do you use too much of a good thing in a sentence?
"That you won't either," said Muriel, "Two's company; seven's too much of a good thing."
What part of speech is too much of a good thing?
Too much of a good thing is a phrase.

Words near too much of a good thing in the dictionary

  1. too many cooks spoils the broth
  2. Too Many Mouths
  3. too much
  4. too much bed makes a dull head
  5. too much information
  6. too much of a good thing
  7. too much pudding will choke a dog
  8. too much water drowned the miller
  9. too posh to push
  10. too rich for one's blood
  11. too right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: too much of a good thing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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