surcharge
verbEtymology From Middle French surcharge, from Old French. By surface analysis, sur- + charge. Doublet of supercharge.
1
To apply a surcharge.
2
To overload; to overburden.
- to surcharge an animal or a ship; to surcharge a cannon
- My heauy hart I feare will breake in twaine, Surcharged with a heauie loade of thoughts.1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I:
3 more examples
- Your head reclin’d, (as hiding grief from view,) / Droops, like a Roſe ſurcharg’d with morning Dew.1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, Act III, page 33:
- The threat was soon fulfilled; the evening came on, prematurely darkened by clouds that seemed surcharged with a deluge.1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 150:
- The first, on January 1, 1883, was attributed to the overlay becoming surcharged with water, due to insufficient drainage, and causing a slip.1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:
3
Law To overstock; especially, to put more cattle into (e.g. a common) than one has a right to do, or more than the herbage will sustain.
- Another diſturbance of common is by ſurcharging it; or putting more cattle therein than the paſture and herbage will ſuſtain, or the party hath a right to do.1768, William Blackstone, “Of Disturbance”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 237:
4
To show an omission in (an account) for which credit ought to have been given.
- The Idle multitude surcharge their laies1599, Samuel Daniel, Musophilus:
- Antonyms
- discount
- Derived terms
- surchargeable, surchargement
- Related terms
- supercharge