Forms: 4–6 somme, 4–7 summe (4 sume, pa. pple. isommed, 5 some, soume, sowme), 7–8 summ, 6– sum. [a. OF. sommer, summer (13–14th cent.), or ad. its source, med.L. summāre (whence Pr. somar, It. sommare, Sp. sumar, Pg. sommar), f. summa SUM sb.1]
1. trans. To find the sum or total number or amount of; to add together; to reckon or count up; to cast up (a column of figures, an account). Now rare.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2345. Folk sua selcut mani brede, þat naman suld cun sume ne neuen.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 261. Alle þese ȝeres i-sommed to gidres makeþ foure hondred ȝeres.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 1986. Here a gloue full of graynes … may þou sowme me þire sedis surely þou trowe, Þou miȝt a-count all oure kniȝtis.
1511. Fabyan, Will, in Chron. (1811), Pref. p. vii. My stuff of household and quyke catall … beyng praysid, engrossid, and summyd.
1530. Palsgr., 725/1. Tarye tyll I have sommed this accompte.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., d iij b. By Arithmetike, the charges of Buildinges are summed together.
1611. Bible, 2 Kings xxii. 4. That he may summe the siluer which is brought into the house of the Lord.
1641. (Sept.) Terrier of Plesheybury Manor, Essex, lf. 6 (MS.). The smythes rent is not summed into the rent or valueacion aforesaide.
1655. Stanley, Hist. Philos., III. 67. Bring my account-book hither, That I may summe my debts and interest.
1785. Gibbon, Lett. to Ld. Sheffield, 13 March. A balance neatly cyphered and summed by Gosling.
1816. Scott, Antiq., vi. The banker’s clerk, who was directed to sum my cash-account, blundered it three times.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., iii. 158, note. This value must be summed through the time that the sun does not set.
1905. R. Garnett, W. Shakespeare, 18.
| Then drooping sad eyes toward the sod, as though | |
| Summing its blades. |
(b) With up. c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 540, in Babees Bk. Tyl countes also þer-on ben cast, And somet vp holy at þo last.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. vi. 34. I cannot sum vp some of halfe my wealth.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. v. 19. Not regarding how each bill is summed up.
1684–5. South, Serm., 22 Feb. (1842), I. 172. He … may as well undertake to count the sands, or to sum up infinity.
1792. D. Stewart, Elem. Philos. Human Mind, I. ii. 114. An expert accountant … can sum up, almost with a single glance of his eye, a long column of figures.
1798. Monthly Mag., VI. 111. Let the speaker of the house sum up the county-polls.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. vii. When the Voting is done, and Secretaries are summing it up.
† b. pass., and intr. for pass. To amount to.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. xii. 3638. Þat sowmyt was in multitude V. thousande men, bathe barne and wiff.
a. 1600. G. Whyatt, Life Anne Boleyn, in Cavendish’s Wks. (1825), II. 207. In three quarters of a year her alms was summed to fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds.
1803. Southey, Lett. to Coleridge, 3 Aug. Those little units of interruption and preventions, which sum up to as ugly an aggregate as the items in a lawyer’s bill.
1865. De Morgan, in Athenæum, 23 Dec., 839/2. Take those Greek words of which the letters sum into 666.
c. trans. To bring up to a certain total. rare.
1597. Bacon, Coulers Good & Evill, Ess. (Arb.), 144. The howre doth rather summe vp the moments then deuide the daye.
1883. G. W. Cable, in Century Mag., July, 429/2. Two hundred and eighty-three deaths summed up an official record that was confessedly incomplete.
d. Math. To find the sum of (a series); in the calculus of finite differences, to find the aggregate of the successive values of a function (SUM sb.1 6 b).
1776. Hutton, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 479. The former series is summed, with rather more ease than the latter.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 500/1. It is required to sum the series ϕx + ϕ(x + Δx) + (x + 2Δx) + … + ϕ(x + n–1 Δx).
e. intr. To do sums in arithmetic.
1825. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., To Summy v.n., to work by arithmetical rules.
1838. D. W. Jerrold, Men of Character, I. 260. They tries Nankin, and finds he can read, and write, and sum.
1870. Kingsley, At Last, x. She sat summing away on her slate.
f. trans. In transf. and fig. uses: To reckon, count or total up.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 167. You cast th’ euent of Warre … And summ’d the accompt of Chance.
a. 1628. Preston, Effect. Faith (1631), 90. When thou hast summed and reckoned all all together, all reasons and all objections to and fro.
1644. Vicars, God in Mount, 105, marg. A briefe recitall of all these foresaid premises summ’d up together.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 656. An old fanatick Author … Who summ’d their Scandals up by Centuries.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 130. I sum up half mankind, And add two thirds of the remaining half.
1820. Scott, Monast., xviii. ‘And various other perquisites…,’ said the Abbot, summing … the advantages attached to the office of conventual bow-bearer.
1828. Campbell, Lines Depart. Emigr. N. S. Wales, 53. The grey-haired swain … Shall … summing all the blessings God has given, Put up his patriarchal prayer to Heaven.
† 2. To collect into a company. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13356. He … sowmet his pepull.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xii. 1070. Bathe men, barnys and women, Þar sowmyt war al be ten.
3. To collect into or embrace in a small compass; also with up. Chiefly pass.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 325. The purpose is perspicuous euen as substance, Whose grossenesse little charracters summe vp.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 473. What seemd fair in all the World, seemd … in her summd up, in her containd. Ibid., IX. 454. She … in her looks summs all Delight.
1731–8. Swift, Pol. Conversat., Introd. 9. The whole Genius, Humour, Politeness and Eloquence of England are summed up in it.
1832. L. Hunt, Gentle Armour, II. 68. In that last blow his strength must have been summ’d.
1842. Tennyson, Gard. Dau., 13. A miniature of loveliness, all grace Summ’d up and closed in little.
1869. Browning, Ring & Bk., X. Pope, 343. Show me thy fruit, the latest act of thine! For in the last is summed the first and all.
4. To give the substance of in a few words or a brief statement; to summarize, epitomize. Said also of the statement made, or, by extension, of a principle, condition, or the like. (Usually with, now rarely without, up.)
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 416. Those many Writers that Photius read, and summed in his Bibliotheca.
1677. trans. Groeneveldt’s Treat. Stone, 12. To sum the various and different opinions of Authors.
1825. Scott, Talism., x. To sum the whole, I am aware [etc.].
1861. Reade, Cloister & H., lxxi. The phase, through which this remarkable mind now passed, may be summed in a word—Penitence.
1875. Ruskin, Fors Clav., lx. V. 337. It sums much of what I may have too vaguely and figuratively stated in my letters.
(b) With up. 1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, I. ccxvii. 190. Go to the Ant, thou Sluggard; (says the Wise-man) which in Few Words Summs up the Moral of This Fable.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 158, ¶ 2. I have a great deal more to say to you, but I shall sum it up all in this one Remark.
1859. C. Barker, Assoc. Princ., i. 9. From these fragments we may thus sum up the general characteristics of Benedictine life.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), i. 14. The simple statements … pretty well sum up the reflections of the … guide-books.
1880. E. Kirke, Life Garfield, 64. To sum it all up: he is true, kind, manly, honest.
absol. 1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 667. To sum up; in the treatment of a case of intracranial tumour, the first object [etc.].
5. To sum up: (of the judge in a trial, or of counsel concluding his case for his client) to recapitulate (the evidence) to the jury before they retire to consider their verdict, giving an exposition of points of law when necessary.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 6 Dec. 1680. Sir Wm. Jones summ’d up the evidence.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 375. When the evidence is gone through on both sides, the judge in the presence of the parties, the counsel, and all others, sums up the whole to the jury.
1874. Nairne Peerage Evidence, 171. Mr. Pearson stated … that he should be prepared, after the evidence now given was printed, to sum up the case on an early day.
b. absol. or intr.
1805. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), To Sum up … in a judicial sense.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 642. He summed up in the same style,… and reminded the jury that the prisoner’s husband had borne a part in the death of Charles the First.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 12 Sept., 8/2. The judge summed up dead against the claim.
c. trans. To form an estimate of, summarize the qualities or character of; to take the measure of.
1889. Grant Allen, Terrible Inher., viii. The old barrister … summed him up from head to foot with his keen, critical Old Bailey stare.
1895. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Grey Lady, I. viii. (1899), 90. She stood … looking back at him over her shoulder, summing him up with a little introspective nod.
† 6. To bring to completion or perfection; to consummate; also with up. Obs.
c. 1592. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, I. i. 3. And of the third part of the Persian ships, There was the venture summ’d and satisfied.
1607. Heywood, Fayre Mayde Exch., K 2. If yong Franke Golding were come back, To summe our wish.
1636. Massinger, Bashful Lover, V. iii. That there might be nothing wanting to Sum up my numerous engagements.
a. 1644. Quarles, Sol. Recant., Sol. xi. 36. One good is wanting still To summe a full Perfection.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 113. Creatures animate with gradual life Of Growth, Sense, Reason, all summ’d up in Man.
† b. Of a bird: To complete (its plumage): see SUMMED ppl. a. 2. Obs. nonce-use.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 421. They summ’d thir Penns.
