smorgasbord

noun

1. A Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes; (by extension) any buffet with a wide selection of dishes.

   “In the middle of the saloon they observed a small table set out with little dishes, containing bread and butter, sardines, pickled herrings, cheese, large baskets filled with rye biscuit, dark and untempting to Mabel's English eye, and the never failing brandy. Gathered around the smorgasbord were all the Swedes talking and eating most earnestly (all standing).”

   “In carrying out the Swedish luxury theme, tasty Scandinavian food will be served from the Stratocruiser galley. The lower-deck cocktail bar will feature smorgasbord snacks and drinks.”

   “Cafeterias, buffets, chuck wagon service and smorgasbords are becoming increasingly popular food service methods.”

   “Generally, operations are primarily self-service if food or beverages are ordered or selected by a customer by a customer at one location and carried by the customer from such location to the customer's seat. For example, cafeteria lines, buffets, and smorgasbords are primarily self-service.”

   “It is a smorgasbord. That means that after you pay a certain amount of money for your meal you can eat anything you want, together with as much as you want. I remember the first time my folks took me to a smorgasbord. I had been in places where they serve you family-style before but never in a smorgasbord.”

2. (figuratively)An abundant and diverse collection of things.

   ““Every time you went into the library,” said the book, “the Creator of the Universe held His breath. With such a higgledy-piggledy cultural smorgasbord before you, what would you, with your free will, choose?””

   “If you have an appetite for education statistics, consider the above an appetizer for the smorgasbord you'll find in the Digest of Education Statistics 1990.”

   “Here is the smorgasbord of life, and our unfocused eyes are even bigger than our stomachs.”

   “Watching my newly single friends, I observed different behaviors in regards to the new single sex. Some women surmised that they needed sex and plenty of it and any man was the right man was them. [...] It appeared to me that this sexual smorgasbord was a way for these women to feel something again. [...] On the other side of the voracious sexual smorgasbord, was the woman who had slapped on a chastity belt and threw away the key.”

   “As such, and unlike philosophy which has toyed with this self-definition, it is not good enough for psychoanalysis to be a smorgasbord of alternative ways of interpreting human nature. The smorgasbord of available therapies is already heavily laden with alternative psychotherapies without psychoanalysis adding further varieties of its own.”