surcharged, ppl. a.
(sɜːˈtʃɑːdʒd)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
Overburdened, overloaded, charged to excess. Also fig. (In quot. 1837 = superheated 1.)
| 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 100 Surcharged brests must needs their greefes expresse. a 1658 Sir H. Slingsby Diary (1836) 201, I found no Billows..to endanger the passage of my late surcharged vessel. 1681 J. Flavel Right. Man's Ref. vi. 197 Causing the designs of the wicked, like a surcharged gun, to recoil upon and destroy themselves. 1798 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 283 The surcharged heart cannot resist..unmerited kindness. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) I. 135 [Thirst] is..intolerable on a surcharged stomach. 1837 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 26/2 The steam being saturated with heat..this surcharged steam becomes a floating agent. 1849 Alison Hist. Eur. II. viii. §18. 247 Quarries..employed as a place of deposit for the bones in the surcharged cemeteries of the capital. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. (Low) xx. §834 Vapour borne by those surcharged winds. 1867 Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc., Surcharged or Overcharged Mine, in Military Mining, a mine loaded with a very great charge of powder. It is sometimes called a globe of compression. |
b. Of a postage-stamp: see surcharge v. 6.
| 1881 Stamp-Collector's Ann. 16 The surcharged sixpennies, doing duty for pennies, are discontinued. |