Forms: 5 somette, sommet(te, -ete, 6, 8 summet, (7 erron. somnet,) 7– summit. [a. OF. sommette, somete fem. (AF. sumette), also somet, sumet masc. (mod.F. sommet), dim. of som, sum:—L. summum, neut. sing. of summus (see SUM sb.1). The modern spelling with -it is due to assimilation to SUMMITY, q.v.]
1. The topmost part, top; the vertex, apex; † the crown (of the head), boss (of a shield), umbo (of a shell).
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, V. viii. 174. It clefte his hede fro the somette of his hede.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 414. Vpon the somette or toppe of the tour, he maad an ymage of copre. Ibid., 615. The maystres had sette on the sommet or toppe of the hede of hector,… a vessell. Ibid. (c. 1477), Jason, 16. Iason smote hym on the sommette of his shelde.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., II. xxxi. (1811), 23. He buylded an Hauen wt a gate ther ouer…. In the summet or pynacle wheron was set a vessell of Brasse.
1706. Prior, Ode to the Queen, xxviii. Let Europe sav’d the Column high erect…. Sublime the Queen shall on the Summit stand.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 536. Golden flow’rs, Blown on the summit of th’ apparent fruit.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 63. Shell thin,… with the summit pointed.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 482. A wild wave … Green-glimmering toward the summit.
1866. R. Tate, Brit. Mollusks, iv. 92. The tentacles … bear the eyes at their summits.
† b. Bot. By an etymologizing alteration of Grew’s SEMET, used for ‘anther’; and hence for ‘stigma.’ Obs.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., Summits or Apices are those Bodies which contain the Prolifick Powder.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., App., Summits of flowers, the same with the antheræ, or tops of the stamina.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 5. The Germen, the Summit, and the Anthers, are all that are essentially necessary.
c. Geom. A point of a polyhedron where three or more faces meet, forming a solid angle.
1805–17. [see summit angle in 4].
1823. Brooke, Crystallogr., 6. The regular tetrahedron,… contained within four equilateral triangular planes. The solid angle at a, is sometimes called its summit.
2. The topmost point or ridge of a mountain or hill. Also, the highest elevation of a road, railway or canal.
1481. Caxton, Godfrey, clxx. 251. Syon is toward the weste, on the sommete or toppe theron stondeth the chirche which is named Syon.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 18. It is a massie wheele Fixt on the Somact of the highest Mount.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 984. He, like a solid Rock by Seas inclos’d,… From his proud Summit looking down.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary (1850), I. 3. Leith Hill, one of the most eminent in England for the prodigious prospect to be seen from its summit.
1736. Gray, Statius, II. 18. Ætna’s smoking summit.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 155. Some of the summits of the Alps have never yet been visited by man.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, I. ii. The last burst carried the mail to the summit of the hill.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. iii. 30. To witness the scene from the summit of the pass.
1891. E. Roper, By Track & Trail, x. 148. Summit, in railway parlance, means the highest point attained by the line in crossing a mountain.
3. fig. The highest point or degree; the acme.
1711. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Montagu, 29 March, Wks. 1803, I. 223. Supposing I was at the very summit of this sort of happiness.
1758. J. Kennedy, Curios. Wilton Ho. (1786), p. xxvii. Literature had then attained its summit.
1848. Pusey, Paroch. Serm., v. (1873), I. 90. If love be the summit of all virtue, humility is the foundation.
1867. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vi. (1870), 108. The year has reached its golden summit.
4. attrib., as summit altar, crater, hill, line, pine, rib, ridge; summit angle = summit quoin; summit level, (a) the highest level reached by a canal, watercourse, railway, or the like; (b) a level place in a railway or stretch of water in a canal, with descending planes on either side; summit quoin, the solid angle at a summit of a polyhedron.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., 326. A beacon tower with *summit altars stood.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 121. The angle of the acumination, or the *summit angle.
1880. Miss Bird, Japan, II. 152. The flank and *summit craters of Monna Loa.
1718. Prior, Solomon, I. 375. Higher than er’st had stood the *Summit-Hill.
1810. J. T., in Risdon’s Surv. Devon, p. xxxii. Its *summit level would be 300 feet above the sea.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xix. (ed. 2), 439. Nor does the drainage from the summit-level always fall … into the head of these valleys.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 37. The summit-level of the Thames and Severn canal.
1901. C. G. Harper, Gt. North Road, II. 249. The summit-level of this railway route.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., App. 838. These intersections form a curved *summit line.
1882. B. Harte, Flip, v. The *summit pines … rocked in the blast.
1895. Story-Maskelyne, Crystallogr., ii. § 246. 296. The *summit-quoins are symmetrical ditrigonally on the axis.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., App. 838. In Germany the *summit ribs [of a vault] are more frequently omitted than introduced.
1897. Daily News, 15 Nov., 5/5. The *summit ridge occupied by the enemy.
