ˈovermost, a. (n.) Obs. exc. dial.
Also 4 -mast(e, -mest(e, -mist.
[f. over adv. or a. + -most: cf. overmore. Perh. an alteration of ovemest; but overmest does not appear so early as the northern overmast(e = midl. and south. -most.]
A. adj. Uppermost, highest; = overest a.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 395 In þe ouermast element of all. Ibid. 22232. a 1350 St. Andrew 168 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 6 His ouermast clothes þan of he did. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 340 In þe overmeste part of þe eir. c 1380 ― Wks. (1880) 340 An harpe haþe þre partis of hym; þe ouermost in which ben stringis wrastid. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xvi. (Tollem. MS.), In þe ouermist party of a man. c 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. xliii. (Gibbs MS.), Whanne he come up to þe ouermoste ende of þat schorte laddere. 1590 Recorde, etc. Gr. Artes (1646) 235 Take the overmost line..as if it were the lowest line. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 115 To plant it in the Over-most and Fattest Earth. |
B. absol. or as n. The uppermost part; = overest n. 1.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter ciii[i]. 13 Fra his overmastes [L. de superioribus] hilles watrand. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xiii. 5 Fro the ouermost of heuene. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. iii. (1859) 4 The ouermost of the erthe was moost clere. |